Gundam: SEEDed Chronicles of 00
by Xamusel - Gamma 11
Summary: This is a triple crossover. When Kira Yamato, Setsuna F. Seiei, and Banagher Links find themselves involved in the Bloody Valentine War, will the nightmares of the war emerge victorious? Or will the Light in the Black reveal itself? Warning: Female Kira and Setsuna. See inside for disclaimer. Prologue updated as of 10/22/13.
1. GN-000: Origins

**Gundam: SEEDed Chronicles of 00**

_Story written by Xamusel and NEBSparky86_

_Original story written by UltimateGundamFighter… credit for the initial idea goes to whoever they are_

_Disclaimer__: The original Gundam franchises used from this point on are owned by Sunrise and the individual studios run by said company. The Universal Century is registered to Yoshiyuki "Kill 'em All" Tomino, the Cosmic Era timeline is registered to Fukuda (the bastard doesn't deserve it), and the Anno Domini timeline (not the one we live in) is registered to Ikeda. Any other franchise that I use is owned by the respective company or individual that came up with the idea for each franchise. What I own is the plotline for this story and any original characters and Mobile Units that may be used (that I make myself). I also claim ownership for specific concepts in this story that will be explained in-story as it progresses. If, for whatever reason, you see the concepts used in a commercial franchise, then know that I made the product line for that commercial franchise, because I'm something of an entrepreneur like that._

**Forward Note: I, the author, am prone to fits of going over things already published to fix things that would normally be inconsequential. If you didn't see this the first time you read this, you can understand why I say it now, at least. While nobody alive is perfect, I strive to be as close to it as I can, at least.**

GN-000: Origins

_CE 65, Republic of Krugis_

In the Middle Eastern country of Krugis, gunfire could be heard coming from the decrepit ruins of a town. The battlefield was littered with the bodies of religious men and women, housewives, soldiers, refugees, even children! It was a mess of anyone and everyone from the local area; along with the still smoking wreckage of countless fallen Mobile Suits from the Republic of East Asia called Anfs. It looked like this country was being absorbed into another through war, and the war was between Krugis and the REA.

In truth, the war was between Krugis and its immediate neighbor, Azidistan. Some power-hungry part of the government of Azidistan thought it was a good idea to invade Krugis. As the months wore on and their armies dwindled; Krugis, out of sheer desperation and the need to survive turned to a man; a man who turned the children of their nation into child soldiers through indoctrination and brainwashing. In regards to these children...

_"This battle is a holy war in the name of God,"_ crackled the voice of the leader of the child soldiers through the old-time radios. Two child soldiers rushed towards an Anf that had suddenly noticed their position; with raised automatic rifles, they fired a burst of rounds at the Mobile Suit.

_"We shall strike down the infidels who disrespect our traditions and lay waste to the land of God,"_ he continued, indifferent to the soldier's plight. Almost all of them were dead, adding yet more innocent lives to the innumerable lives already taken by this war. As the Anfs continued to march forward, looking for more opponents, they didn't see the one surviving child soldier who lived on, panting behind a wall, their gun at the ready.

_"We must not submit to the infidels,"_ was heard, as an older model of Mobile Suit fired on the invading army. An Anf destroyed another of the older models near the remaining child soldier's shelter, causing _her_ to come out of hiding and fire her rifle before an explosion from behind her forced her into the air, landing a few meters away.

_"By dying in battle, we shall be led into the presence of God,"_ the leader finished his broadcast for the time being. The child soldier moved away from the Anfs that were in front of her, taking further shelter behind a different wall. As she sat behind the wall, her messy black hair and tanned skin complementing each other to accent her natural beauty, she raised her head to uncover her cold brownish chestnut eyes, cold from the effects of living as a child soldier, and colder still because of the lack of love in her life which led her to this deathly fate. It was in this land which once rang with the laughter of its children but now only trembled with the sounds of thundering weapons fire as the children lay dead or dying… and yet, this was the land she called home.

_'In this world, there is no God!'_ That thought was that of one that had been freed from brainwashing by a supposed religious man, one that was leading children like her to die in a so-called 'holy' war. When images of she and her brother, Qutan Ibrahim, flashed through her mind, she felt the pain of losing him still to this day, mainly because of the spiritual link that they had as twins. Saleema Ibrahim was not going to distract herself for long, however, as missiles could be heard from nearby launching from another of the older model of Mobile Suits. As the missiles hit an Anf, the targeted Anf turned its attention towards Saleema's position, firing a 30mm machine gun from under the head unit in her direction.

Saleema, as if by divine grace or providence, knew that she needed to duck to avoid the shots. As soon as she dodged, the wall behind her was riddled with holes by the Anf's gunfire. Once the barrage subsided, she ran away from this exposed position, gunfire still ringing in her ears; grateful to still be alive.

_"This battle is a holy war in the name of God,"_ spoke the voice of the leader again. It was as if he didn't care for the fate of his loyal followers in the slightest.

Saleema, though, thought once more; _'In this world, there IS no God!'_

_"We shall strike down the infidels who disrespect our traditions and lay waste to the land of God,"_ were the last words ever heard from the leader by Saleema or anyone else. As Saleema ran through the town and did her absolute best to survive. Machine gun fire chased her down rubble strewn streets and former hallways as she desperately dodged the incoming rounds until she finally made it to cover in another enclosed space, but one that still provided her a view of the battlefield. When movement was caught out of the corner of her right eye, she turned her head to see that an Amf had noticed her position in the city, making her shrink back in terror as she sensed her own death fast approaching.

With the machine gun lowered and ready to fire, it seemed that the pilot would kill her then and there. Suddenly a purple beam of energy ripped through the Anf's head; disabling it permanently. Though Saleema saw this happen; she almost couldn't believe her eyes as similar beams of energy fell to crush her enemies. Fearing that her position may have been compromised, she stood up, aiming her rifle in seemingly random directions until she decided to look up for the potential enemy. What she saw amazed her….

* * *

_CE 68, Copernicus City on the Moon_

In a park near the residential block of the Lunar City, two friends, both of whom were far removed from the conflict that was brewing in the Earth Sphere, were parting for what seemed an eternity. The friends stood face to face. Athrun Zala's emerald green eyes, despite his sadness, had shown clear. Sitting in the palm of his hands was a mechanical bird which he held out to Kira Yamato. As he held the pet robot in his hands, Athrun said to Kira, "The PLANTs _and_ Earth will see eye to eye. There will be no war."

Birdy hopped over to the hands of its new owner, who graciously accepted it. They knew that their task was complete. Athrun made them promise to never leave the bird alone, then said, "The Evacuation order doesn't mean a thing." Then he added, "You'll join me in the PLANTs, right, Kira?"

"Athrun," Kira said, "thank you, but you know full well that my parents won't let me go out on my own. It would be nearly impossible for me to join you in the PLANTs. And I don't want to have to tell you 'I told you so' if war breaks out."

Athrun looked at Kira. It was as if he were seeing his friend for the first time, and he began to wonder… Though they had known one another for months, this thought was completely new to him - was it possible that Kira was not a boy, but a girl? Kira's boyish figure was subtly beginning to take on the look of a young woman, and the voice, rather than getting deeper, was the same as before. How could he have missed this basic truth about his best friend? _'Man, am I ever a fool,'_ thought Athrun.

"Kira," he said, "I've got a crazy question for you. Are you a boy or a girl?"

"What? You don't know?" Kira shot back. With that, she drew herself up on her tiptoes, grabbed him by the shoulders, and planted a kiss on his lips. She dropped her hands and stepped back, her face crimson red. "Last time I checked," she said, "girls didn't change their voice. We'll meet again." With that, she ran off to her family.

Athrun stood dumbfounded as he place a hand to his mouth, unsure of what to make of the obviously female act from his previously thought-of male friend. Without realizing the repercussions, and without knowing he was blushing at this thought, Athrun said to himself, "I hope you realize that I'll be finding you and claiming you as mine, Kira-chan."

* * *

_January 14th, CE 70, L3 Area_

It was a relatively calm time for the neutral colonies in the Lagrange 3 area. Not only were they out of the way of the war that was brewing between the Earth and the PLANTs, but there was nothing that would bring the forces of the Earth to them, unless something huge happened to bring them there. Fortunately, nothing out of the ordinary was going to happen, especially not-

Suddenly, something out of the ordinary _did_ happen, namely an explosion of such force and power that it acted like a miniature sun in brightness and knocked the Orb Union colony of Heliopolis away from its position in geosynchronous orbit with Earth by a couple hundred kilometers. Heliopolis wasn't knocked far enough away from its original position to lose orbiting status. When it was able to confirm its new position in L3, the colony control station found that there was a strange set of visitors in the area which they had been forced to vacate, namely, seven O'Neil Island 3-class space colonies that weren't there before!

* * *

_In L1_

Within the _Agamemnon_-class _Theodore Roosevelt_, a good Admiral, Justin Barkley, was being pestered by Captain Morel Nathans, his XO aligned with Blue Cosmos, to lead an offensive against the PLANTs with their Moebius Units. As for that conversation….

"Admiral Barkley, sir, we do _not_ need to wait for Washington to give us the order to destroy those Patchworkers! Especially since the Patchworkers are _always_ planning to do things that would destroy us with pure genetics!" Nathans went on with that tirade of Blue Cosmos for a good while, and Barkley was getting tired of it, though he had to play the part of being loyal to BC.

It was at that moment that the communications officer got a beeping on his station. Admiral Barkley, hearing the beeping, interrupted Nathans. "Hold on a moment, what's the beeping about? Did we get a message from the homeland?"

The communications officer nodded, saying, "The message is from Fleet Admiral Dubal, representative of LOGOS, sir."

_That_ caught Barkley and Nathans off guard. Both men knew what LOGOS really was, and neither of them knew what to expect from a representative of the group. Barkley asked, "What does the message say?"

"It says, and I quote, 'Head to L3 through L4 to investigate seven new colonies appearing out of nowhere and, if possible, make first contact with this group. Do _not_ go through L5 to nuke the PLANTs, or else you and your fleet will be nuked in return.' End quote," the communications officer finished.

Nathans was sweating profusely for fear of his life, while Barkley was grinning savagely. Barkley then ordered, "Helm, direct us through L4 to L3. We have a cluster of colonies to contact, and I doubt these people are aware of what's going on."

"Aye, sir, heading to L3 via L4," responded the helmsman. The fleet followed.

* * *

_Back in L3, five hours later_

The _Theodore Roosevelt_ and its escorted fleet made it to L3 to see that there was indeed a new cluster of Colonies near where the Orb Union's Heliopolis colony was located. When the ships arrived near one of these colonies, the communications officer picked up radio signals coming from the colony. The bridge crew listened with interest to the broadcast.

_"Good morning, Industrial 7, and have an early yet belated Happy New Year. We have successfully completed a test of the colony-based FTL Hyperdrive, which proves the Vist Foundation's theorem correct about leaving our solar system in a space colony. We somehow miscalculated where we were supposed to go, though, as we're currently in L3 instead of L1. Please accept that as the situation, and have a lovely winter day ten weeks ahead of the UC."_ And with that, the man's voice was replaced by music.

Admiral Barkley knew right then what he needed to do. He turned to Nathans and said to him, "You have the bridge, but you _don't_ have permission to do anything outside of your regular duties. I expect that you'll fulfill your position properly _this_ time." With that, he opened a comm to the hangar to say, "Hangar bay, prepare a shuttle for me. I'm going to investigate the nearest colony to us and see about first contact with this group."

* * *

_Two hours later, in Industrial 7_

Cardeas Vist, a Caucasian man nearing his sixtieth birthday, was wearing the uniform of the head of the Vist Foundation. He was walking with his second in command, Gael Chan, towards the harbor of the colony where the shuttle from the _Theodore Roosevelt_ was located. When they got there, Cardeas called Admiral Barkley over to them.

When the men met, Admiral Barkley saluted in the AF style, saying as he did so, "Admiral Justin Barkley reporting for duty, sir. May I know who it is I'm saluting?"

Cardeas saluted in the Earth Federation forces style, saying, "I am Cardeas Vist, current head of the Vist Foundation and family. I think both of us would feel more at ease if we didn't have to salute." When they dropped their hands, Cardeas asked, "May I invite you into the colony proper? I want us to get off to a good start.

Admiral Barkley replied, "Certainly, I think a good civil conversation would be in order."

Cardeas nodded, saying, "I would be honored to lead you to a fine restaurant for us to speak in private. This way."

With that, both men walked into the colony to a fine dining establishment called the Golden Eye Eagle. As they walked in, they were wrapping up discussion of the UC's Mobile Suit history, leading up to the current time units that were stolen from Anaheim Electronics, the Kshatriya and the Sinanju. Barkley was, to say it lightly, thoroughly impressed at the level of technology in use by their military.

When they got seated at a free table, the topic drifted to local history, which included Blue Cosmos, the organization that Barkley pretended to be a part of, and LOGOS, the organization that he was really allied with. They were deep in conversation when a young teenage boy asked them, "May I take your order?"

Cardeas recognized the voice immediately. Turning to face the boy, he asked, "What are _you_ doing here?! Shouldn't you be in school?"

The boy, a brown-haired youth with brown eyes, was wearing a waiter's uniform and holding a notebook for taking orders. When he heard Cardeas' question, though, his eyes dilated in surprise. "Chairman Vist? What brings you here? And what do you mean, shouldn't I be in school?"

Cardeas answered, "I'm here on Vist Foundation business with a local Admiral that belongs in this part of the Galaxy. As for what I meant; you're a student at the Anaheim Electronics Industrial College, are you not?"

The waiter looked away uncomfortably at the last part, saying more with his actions than with his words, that he was forcefully removed from the school against his will.

Cardeas stood up. "Take me to your employer. I need to see about getting you back in school."

Stunned, the waiter hesitated, before he finally said, "Right this way, Chairman Vist."

* * *

_Two hours later, Anaheim Electronics Industrial College_

Cardeas sighed as he looked at the file that said that Banagher Links was expelled. He recalled that only he was allowed to do something like that, but he didn't want to expel his own flesh and blood, which meant that someone had overridden his authority on the matter.

Apparently, Bankcroft was an idiot for not seeing that Banagher had problems staying afloat in his life, since he had lost his mother at a young age; it was a miracle that Cardeas gave him a second chance that time. Banagher, though young, was a powerful Newtype and every ill intent directed at him was magnified at least three hundred fold… it was a wonder that he didn't break along the way.

Upon recalling his offer to Admiral Barkley, Cardeas decided to follow through on his end. He would sign a deal that said that they would stay out of the war that would eventually brew between the Earth Governments and the Space Colonies in L5 in exchange for providing the means to mine materials that were needed in their own projects. Materials like Luna Titanium and Helium-3 were so abundant in this part of the galaxy, but they weren't being used, which was a real shame.

After a bit of thought, he decided to send Banagher to the local colony, Heliopolis, for school, maybe as part of a cultural exchange program. Besides, it would do him some good to see the world around him.

* * *

_February 15th, CE 70, classified location in the Atlantic Federation_

Within a meeting room in the Atlantic Federation, Muruta Azrael, current leader of Blue Cosmos, was frightened.

No, wait, scratch that. He was scared _shitless_!

When he first returned to the LOGOS gathering place, he was expecting a triumphant return fit for a hero who had ordered the destruction of a vile enemy. Instead, he earned a lot of glares from pretty much everyone in the room. It was as if he was supposed to let the filthy Patchworkers live in their filthy home in space!

Oh, sure, he had to orchestrate the events of the UN bombing on the Moon ten days before in order to shift the blame onto the space monsters, but it was as if the cleansing he had ordered was against the natural order of things, which shouldn't be true… right?

As if reading his thoughts, one of those loyal to the cause of destroying the Patchworkers came up to him and said in a whisper, "Lord Azrael, your actions in regard to the Junius 7 colony had caused a huge schism in LOGOS, resulting in three splinter groups."

Azrael's eyes widened. Sweat poured down his face. He honestly didn't know that this would happen, otherwise he would have avoided this crisis by… wait, how in the nine hells _would_ he know?! He had already made it clear three weeks prior that a cleansing would occur, and he had understood their silence as agreement, what with the Patchworkers deserving utter eradication!

One of the other members of LOGOS, whose main objective was profiting from war, turned to face Azrael and said, "Muruta Azrael, you and the others that wish to eradicate an ethnic group that had not posed us any trouble are free to leave, but not free to return. Make sure your base of operations is somewhere we can't find, because we _will_ hunt it down if you leave a hint of its location, and destroy you at the first possible convenience!"

Azrael's face became ghastly pale. Where could he hide? It was imperative that he stay alive so that he could complete his objective of destroying the Patchworkers!

Someone shoved a magnum and several rounds into his hands. "Maybe you don't have tactical training, but you do have weapons training. Put it to good use in this war that you started on four fronts." Before Muruta Azrael could retort, the man that handed him the stuff continued, "See you in Hell… though may the Devil know that you put this upon yourself."

With that, all the remaining racist in LOGOS were forcefully removed from their old headquarters. They had 72 hours before LOGOS' profiteers came looking for them!

* * *

_February 19th, CE 70, Maius Military Institute_

"What?! Are you out of your mind?" the head foreman asked 16 year-old adopted son of Eileen Canaver, Rengi Canaver. "You know damn well, that we produce GINNs, DINNs and other mono-eyed mobile suits. We can't produce this, not without authorization from the National Defense Committee Chairman Patrick Zala."

"Yeah, but he can't tell you that you can't build this proposed mobile suit," countered Rengi. "Besides, think of it as... making a smaller, human-sized mobile suit that you could use for making weapons and using it as a testbed for future developments for the ZAFT Military."

"Hmm...," said the head foreman as he set his chin on his right hand and looked at the proposed design the human sized mobile suit. [Think RGM-79FP GM Striker equipped with GINN weapons.] "I think I could at least get the parts built, but you gotta take a GINN robot with you."

"If I find another design, can I remodel the GINN to the design I find?" asked Rengi.

"Sure, just make sure you gimme specs for what you find," instructed the head foreman, noticing that Defense Committee Chairman Patrick Zala had entered the factory. "You need to get outta here, Chairman Zala won't like that you're here. I'll get your order and you'll owe MMI your services with your personal robotics project."

Rengi Canaver held his hands up in mock surrender as he said, "You got it, I'm all yours for testing."

"Good to know," said a grateful head foreman, "now make yourself scarce."

* * *

_Meanwhile in the Atlantic Federation_

"Come on, do I really have to tell you my genetic type?" asked 16 year-old Roux Louka.

"If you want to be hired, yes, you do have to tell us your genetic type," answered a female interviewer. "I'm sorry, but this is the law now, here in the Atlantic Federation."

"That's a load of crap and you know it," shot back Roux. "This is just another fucking excuse for Blue Cosmos to try and rule every aspect of our lives. Great, now I'm pissed off."

The interviewer wrote something down, pinched the bridge of her nose and then looked to the lavender haired Newtype and said, "Well, I thought we had a position open, but it seems that it was just filled recently. I guess we don't need to hire you after all."

"Alright, I'll play along with your damn bullcrap," Roux said a calm fury. "You can write down me down as a Newtype."

One of the interviewers then laughed at Roux because she had called herself a 'Newtype.' The main interviewer sighed a frustrated sigh as she wrote down Roux's answer. As she wrote down the answer, she then said, "Yeah, we still just filled those positions I thought we had open. Good day to you Miss Louka."

"And don't come back here, ya damn bitch!" added a store employee who acted as a witness to the interview.

"I'm leaving this God forsaken country," Roux said to herself. "I'm going to the Orb Union. Fuck the Atlantic Federation and its damn laws. I'm throwing away my damn citizenship to this damn country and its band of racist sons of bitches."

* * *

_July 15th, CE 70_

As work began on the Atlantic Federation's G-Weapons, one of Orb's nobles came by the Morgenroete facility for a surprise visit.

"Oh... oh! L-Lord Gina!" exclaimed a secretary as she looked up from the interview she was conducting with a certain prospect. "We weren't expecting you'd come today."

Rhondo Gina Sahaku looked to the secretary and then looked to notice the prospect being interviewed.

"Are you here to apply to be a test pilot?" asked Gina.

"Yes I am," answered Roux. "I've been turned down at all of the places in the Atlantic Federation, just because I'm not one of those... Pure Naturals and racist like them."

"Ah, that is understandable," Gina Sahaku said to Roux. "We are looking for a test pilot for a top secret project that can benefit Orb."

"So you're telling me..." began Roux as she studied the noble from Orb.

"You're hired," finished Gina as he motioned for Roux to follow him, along with the secretary.

* * *

"What? You want us to construct mobile weapons?" asked the chief engineer. "We don't have anything to go off of."

"Not true," Gina said as he produced a disk and gave it to the chief engineer. "I managed to acquire a copy of the designs for the Atlantic Federation G-Weapons and designs for how I want the batch of mobile weapons to be designed. The only thing that I wasn't able to acquire was the technology for the Atlantic Federation's Phase Shift armor developed for their prototypes."

The chief engineer received the disk from Gina Sahaku and had a grin on his face as he said, "Never fear, we'll just make our prototypes lighter and faster than the Atlantic federation's prototype mobile weapons."

Rondo Gina Sahaku gave a grin to the chief engineer and a slight nod as he said "Don't let me down. And one of the mobile weapons needs to have a combat assisted AI. One last thing, make sure that most of the prototypes are fully completed."

"Anything else, Lord Gina?" asked the chief engineer.

"Yes, the one designated Mirage Frame is to be equipped with Mirage Colloid and given extra equipment at a later time," answered Gina. "And this one, make sure that it has laminated armor for the new concept of allowing individual mobile weapons to enter the atmosphere."

"Yes sir," acknowledged the chief engineer.

* * *

**Xamusel A/N: Honestly, this was something that had been bugging me to write it for a while now, especially since reading UltimateGundamFighter's version of the story (which, for those of you unaware, doesn't have female Kira or female Setsuna). I honestly won't take credit for the idea for this story, it was his to begin with, people.**

**By the way, before anyone asks, I labeled the prologue that way on purpose. Yes, this is the prologue, and, no, I won't spoil why I labeled it this way. It was meant to be a joke that those in the Gundam fandom would get.**

**Mecha profiles will appear when I actually get to all the mecha… which will start in the first actual chapter. I'll make sure to keep things original for when it's needed.**

**Okay, may as well leave a note from Sparky here, if he wants to leave one at least.**

* * *

**Sparky A/N: Instead of having Green Frame and Mirage Frame be incomplete, I decided to have them at least completely built, but Mirage Frame won't have all of the armaments that it has in Vs. Astray. But it will at least have the Igelstellungs, beam sabers, a beam rifle and a shield. Green Frame, however will have all of it's standard armaments. But you'll have two new machines in the next chapter.**

* * *

**Xamusel A/N: *phew* That should do it for this time.**

**This was a really tough one to wait on. We had to rework this one a good deal… thanks to the people that helped out before for making this better now.**

**Alright, now, off to the next chapter for us!**

**Until we meet again… farewell.**

**~Xamusel**

* * *

**PS: By the time you guys see this chapter again, it'll be the end of my 22nd birthday, which is something I wanted to share with you all. I hope you all read and review the story for what it is.**

* * *

**PSS: Updated again... this time with a couple minor corrections that needed to be done. Nothing overly major, but it'll help make things better, hopefully.**


	2. GN-001: False Peace

GN-001: False Peace

_January 25th, CE 71, Heliopolis space colony in L3, park in the colony_

Under the roof of a gazebo, three students were busy typing away at their laptops, trying to finish the homework assigned to them that seemed to be piling up over time. Two of the students, girls of roughly the same age, were wearing close-toed pumps and kimono gowns of different coloring and design, the one with chestnut brown hair wearing an amethyst purple kimono gown with a rose-red flower design on the left side of her clothes over her left breast while the one with black hair wore one with a chestnut brown base and a golden bird design over her right breast on the right side of her clothes. The final student, a boy who moved to the area a bit after Christmas, wore a blue denim jacket with an AE symbol on the left side over a white shirt and blue denim jeans with brown boots. He was quick to be a part of their social circle, which fortunately wasn't all girls, but he seemed to be stuck with these two more often than anyone else liked.

As it was, Banagher Links could feel the negative intent towards him because of his closeness to the two most popular female students in the Heliopolis Technical College, especially given their natural beauty that was accented by their clothes and by the smallest amount of makeup that they needed to enhance what they already had. Then again, most of their popularity was out of lust, not of liking a person one way or another in the normal sense.

Banagher remembered that the other boys, and even some girls for some reason, would look at his friends with lust in their eyes. There were some exceptions to the boys lusting over his good friends, but the exceptions were few and far between, given that it was well less than one percent of the male population in Heliopolis. If anything, he could count the number of other males that were like him in the colony on one hand, even the thumb.

Shaking his head at the thought of there being more perverts than the world needed, Banagher was about to get back to his work when the chestnut-haired girl, Kira Yamato, asked him with concern evident in her voice, "Banagher-kun, what's wrong? Is something eating at you right now?"

The black-haired girl, Setsuna F. Seiei, asked in monotone, "Were you thinking of how much of the boys here are lusting after us, Banagher Links?" Upon seeing the incredulous look sent her way from Banagher, Setsuna clarified, "I could feel their eyes trying to undress Kira and I. I don't know if the same can be said for Kira, but it was that way with me, because of something that happened to me when I moved to the Heliopolis colony two years ago."

Kira, as the only other person aware of the incident, kept quiet about it for Setsuna's benefit. When Banagher looked at Kira, she could feel the question about to be asked, so she answered, "I can feel that sort of thing as well, Banagher-kun. I wouldn't say that it was because of anything happening to me, but it has more to do with how I was born, if that makes sense."

Banagher, aware of how it made sense for some reason, felt more comfortable being in the presence of fellow Newtypes. He knew that he was a Newtype, but he didn't realize that he was friends with other Newtypes, to some degree. Still, as he remembered that he needed to get to work, he said, "Guys, we really need to finish our assignment from the professor. If we're not fast enough, he'll dump more stuff on us today for us to do along with this homework, given how good we are at his lessons."

It was with a nod that the three of them got back to work, with Kira watching the news as she was doing her work. As she listened to the news, she and the others heard a male reporter say, _"The refugee camps in South Africa have been suffering from a chronic shortage in food and relief supplies, endangering the lives of 1.2 Million people."_

_"We'll now bring you images from the Kaohsiung front where heavy fighting is taking place,"_ continued a female reporter, catching the attention of Setsuna and Banagher. When they looked over to Kira's laptop, they saw the female reporter say, _"According to information just received, the ZAFT forces have approached to within six kilometers of Kaohsiung."_

It was at roughly that moment that a mechanical bird appeared in front of Kira's laptop, saying, "Birdy?"

Shortly afterwards, Kira, Setsuna and Banagher heard a call of "Kira! Setsuna! Banagher!"

When they heard their names being called out, Kira, Setsuna and Banagher turned their attention to the young man that Banagher knew was one of the five males in the entire colony, not counting Kira's father, who would never lust after his good friends.

Before the young man, a coffee-brown haired male with steel-blue eyes, a white-green button-down short-sleeved shirt over a blue t-shirt and tan pants, and his girlfriend, a young woman with honey-brown hair and blue eyes, wearing an orange and slightly yellow dress with detached orange sleeves, could say anything, Setsuna identified them, saying in her usual monotone, "Tolle Koenig. Miriallia Haw."

Banagher, glad to see some friendly faces, asked, "How are you guys doing? I hope that this is just a social visit you had in mind."

Tolle, unfortunately for the three in the gazebo, said, "Sorry, Banagher. Professor Kato's been trying to get a hold of you three."

Kira, showing clear signs of exasperation, asked, "What, again?"

Miriallia, unaware of how much the three friends were hoping it wasn't so, said, "He asked us to bring you three to him right away." As she thought about it, she asked, "Well? Are you assisting him with something else?"

"Too much," Banagher answered for the three of them in a gloomy tone. "We still haven't even finished going through the stuff he dumped on us _yesterday_, which is a pain and a half for each of us as it is." As he said that, he hunched over in his seat and drooped his head to a low level because of how unfair the situation was.

Setsuna, aware of the mental state Banagher was in, patted him on the back to get him out of it, all the while saying, "Don't worry, Banagher-kun. You'll be fine when we get to see the professor again."

As Setsuna was getting Banagher perked up again, Tolle came over to Kira's laptop with Miriallia and asked, "Huh. Some development in the news?"

"Yeah," Kira answered. As she pulled up the screen again, she said, as if she didn't care all that much at the moment, "Taiwan, apparently."

_"I'm within seven kilometers of Kaohsiung where the sounds of fierce combat continue to echo!"_ The male reporter for the Cosmic era Broadcast Newsgroup, CBN in other words, gave the scoop as GINNs were floating down to face off against Tierans that were in the area at the time.

Tolle, in shock at the turn of events, gasped and declared when he saw it, "If this is footage from last week, they may have already taken over Kaohsiung!"

Kira, aware of how that would turn out, switched her laptop to standby mode and said, "Yeah."

Miriallia asked the group, "Kaohsiung isn't very far from us, is it? Will the homeland be alright?"

With that, Birdy took off in the air, saying, "Birdy!"

Before Tolle could reassure his girlfriend, Banagher, having gotten over his gloom spell, said, "It may seem like Orb will be alright, but you have to look at it from an outside perspective. I remember a situation back home where a colony was attacked because it held Mobile Suit prototypes that were capable of using Beam Weapons, only nobody in the war knew that the prototypes had beam equipment installed except for the ones to build them in the military facilities and the one who designed them to begin with. Granted, this was a year before I was born, but the prototypes made it to the end of the war with no problem for most of them. Only the one known as Gundam was destroyed in a final battle between its pilot and a nemesis known as Char Aznable. For all we know, the situation could very well be like that here, only with a company like Morgenroete building the prototypes."

Tolle normally would be oblivious to what Banagher would try getting at, but this time, he said, "I don't believe you've ever spoken about your past before, Banagher."

Banagher, turning to face Tolle, said, "It's because you guys never asked. Besides, I don't remember much of my past, given that I don't know who my father is, even."

Setsuna, knowing that she had a past that she never spoke about with the others either, was about to say something when she noticed Kira gazing off into the distance. With Banagher sitting upright and in between her and Kira, Setsuna motioned for Tolle to help Kira out of her daydream, which he was happy to oblige with.

Tolle got in front of Kira's face and asked, "Kira?" When Kira, shocked as she was, sprawled her body backwards and into Banagher, who knocked into Setsuna as well, Tolle asked, "What's up with you, anyway?" Turning to leave the gazebo, he said, "Let's go."

With that, he and Miriallia left the gazebo, leaving Banagher and Kira to get off of Setsuna before they realized that they had to clean up their work. While they were doing that, Kira thought, _'Otouto-kun, I hope you stay home for a long while this time. We missed you when you ran away last time.'_

* * *

_At the Morgenroete Astray Factory_

In another part of Heliopolis at Morgenroete, a young woman about 17 years old with waist length lavender hair and caramel colored eyes and was wearing a customized flight suit as she was getting ready to make a test flight of one of the prototype mobile weapons that Rhondo Gina Sahaku, the noble of Orb who had commissioned them to cooperate with the Atlantic Federation, had built behind their backs. Testing one of the new mobile suits was certainly going to be a tremendous honor for her. But with the prototypes, they were lacking the proper kind of OS, especially one for her since she was a Natural. She wanted to pilot the fully assembled MBF-P06 Gundam Astray Silver Frame, but she was assigned to the MVF-P01 Gundam Astray Ventus Frame instead. For the moment her mind was on a certain individual that had been her best friend from childhood. She had wanted to be his girlfriend when they had gotten older. But the murder of her childhood friend's parents had dramatically changed her life as her friend had been listed as missing and presumed dead. She sighed as she headed towards the hangar. As she headed to the hangar, the test pilot, named Roux Louka, had a slight shiver run down her spine. Roux shook her head as she thought that it was impossible because only her childhood friend, Rengi Gutenberg, gave her a slight shiver when she could sense his presence.

_'N-No it can't be Rengi,'_ thought Roux, _'There's no way its Rengi. The police told me that they presumed he was dead.'_

Two floors below Roux, young 17 year-old Rengi Canaver, the adopted son of Eileen Canaver was on a secret mission assigned to him by the PLANTS Supreme Chairman Siegel Clyne to see if Orb had begun construction of their own mobile weapons and to bring back data on them if he could bring anything back. He had orange hair, magenta eyes and wore a disguise as an employee of Morgenroete with two custom made swords strapped to his back. He also had reflective silver tiger stripes painted on his face and arms going down his shoulders to his wrists. Rengi was glad to have the assignment as he had been stuck doing menial work since joining ZAFT, despite being a Natural who joined willingly and was willing to brave being labeled a traitor to the human race by the Blue Cosmos organization. As Rengi approached a hangar, he encountered a familiar face. This familiar face was one Rengi would prefer to forget as he heard the person ramble on.

"I found it," said the agent of Blue Cosmos. "Director Azrael has made a mistake in trusting that bastard noble from Orb. Rhondo Gina Sahaku is creating his own mobile weapons to kill all Naturals and make himself the ruler of the Earthsphere."

As the agent went on rambling, he did not notice Rengi coming behind him and then running his sword through him and finally slicing his head off. With the agent dead, the young and eager Natural went forward to what would soon change his life forever.

* * *

_With Kira's little brother_

A young man of fourteen, born a year after Kira, with blue hair and green eyes and active camo clothes under a blue zippable sweater, was walking from home to his school when he noticed something out of the corner of his eye to the right. As it stood, he was walking next to some shopping centers on his right side, but then he found himself near an alleyway. This wasn't odd in and of itself, but the person in the alley _was_, given that it was not a hobo.

Turning his gaze to the person, the young man asked, "Which Almark are you?"

The Almark answered, "I'm the only Ribbons you've met, Kyou Yamato." Upon seeing Kyou's eyes widen in realization, Ribbons Almark smiled in a calming manner and said, "Relax. I'm just giving you payment for your service to the true nature of the Plan, one that you're free to use as you wish. You'll find it in Morgenroete's B-Hangar, next to the 37th Factory District, and equipped with a true GN Drive." Before Kyou could question Ribbons on anything, Ribbons said, "I found a method to replicate the black box technology down to the letter, even though it's a very time and cost-intensive method, so I could only do it once this time. Don't worry about the money involved, Yamato, I already extracted it from a couple sources to keep them from doing anything stupid for a long time."

Meanwhile, back on Earth, Alejandro Corner of Corner Industries and Laguna Harvey of Linear Train Industries sneezed heavily before wondering if they were coming down with something… only for them to find out that they lost at least three quarters of their individual wealth for something they didn't even do.

With Kyou and Ribbons, Ribbons pulled out a phone and handed it to Kyou, saying as he did so, "I equipped a mobile phone with a connection to Veda, so you'll still receive instructions from it and I as time moves on. Before you ask about N-Jammer interference, the connection to Veda prevents that, so you'll be fine for receiving orders from anywhere in the Solar System at least." After giving Kyou the phone, Ribbons said, "You'll need a codename when dealing with the other Meisters, so I decided that you'd go by the name Kratos Aurion while doing so."

At that moment, Kyou's other phone went off, playing a cell-phone version of "Valley of the Damned" by pre-Reconstruction War era band Dragonforce. Getting it out of his pocket, he checked the caller ID and saw it was Kira. With that, he opened the phone and put it to his ear, saying, "Yes, Onee-chan?"

_"Kyou, you remember that Professor Kato needs you back in class for until the end of the month, barring strange circumstances to the colony, right?"_ Kira asked.

Kyou put the other phone in his opposite pocket as he answered, "Onee-chan, you do realize that I don't give a rat's a-"

_"Language, Kyou,"_ was the strict reprimand Kira gave her brother.

Kyou sighed in irritation as he pinched the bridge of his nose, before letting go so that he could say, "Anyway, you do realize that I don't care even the slightest that Kato wants me there, right? I was only going to head there to get something that's payment for me and make sure that I can use it right. If you're lucky, I'll make it to see you, your girlfriend and your boyfriend in class before heading off to Hangar B."

Kira's stuttering was clue enough that Kyou would need to get off the phone. He closed the phone and put it away, before saying to Ribbons, "I'd better get over to the Gundam in Hangar B. I'll see you later, boss."

Ribbons nodded, before saying, "I'll see you later, _Kratos Aurion_. You might want to keep that name in mind with Setsuna F. Seiei as one of your associates that is assigned as a Meister." With that, Kyou moved away from the spot he was at, only for Ribbons to call out to him, saying, "Hold on a moment. Do you remember the first time we met, Yamato?"

Kyou paused in his steps before turning his head to face Ribbons. With a raised eyebrow, he answered, "I do, though the exact details elude me. What are you trying to get at?"

Ribbons, after a moment of thought, said, "I wanted to offer a similar challenge to you as the first time we met, only it won't be playing chess with a normal board. Instead, when next we meet, we'll be playing Soul Chess**(1)**."

Kyou's eyes widened, familiar with the game, if it could even be called that. He never played it, but he knew that it was a high-risk game that was almost forgotten completely by the year Cosmic Era 71, given that it had a death penalty under normal circumstances for those who lost the game. Why Ribbons was challenging him to a game of Soul Chess was beyond him….

Ribbons, as if to abate the fear, said, "Don't worry; this won't be a serious game. I wouldn't want to kill you unless you betray the human race and cause a war between it, so we'll be making sure the guidelines for the game are made clear from the beginning, Kyou. I'll teach you the rules of the game before we play our non-serious game for real." Turning to leave the alleyway, he said, "I will see you when fate allows it." With that, he walked away from the alleyway, over to the spaceport where his way out would be.

Kyou stayed rooted to his spot for a bit, until his older phone went off again, which made him look at the caller ID on it. It was a friend of his on the colony, Ieyasu, so he answered the phone, saying, "Yo, dawg! What's up?"

_"Hey Kyou. Remember the ship that was being built here?"_ Ieyasu said over the line.

"Hell yeah! Is it finished yet?" Kyou was hoping that it was, mainly because of a job that he was hired to do for the Atlantic Federation involving the ship.

_"Yeah, that's why I was calling. You might want to get there ASAP; otherwise you might miss your contract, with payment benefits to your family as per the deal going away."_

Ieyasu didn't have to say anything else, as Kyou said, "You don't have to remind me about that. Listen, dude, I'll be there as soon as I finish a trip to Hangar B, mainly because of payment for services rendered to a contract supplier that I need to collect, so I'll see ya at the dock when I get there."

_"Okay, Kyou, I'm waiting for you in the dock as we speak. I'm also waiting for the newbs in charge of the G-weapons to get over here so that I can help you get introduced."_ Ieyasu didn't need to make it clear that the ship's captain, Marcus Keeler, was probably going to give Kyou hell for being an Enhanced Natural**(2)** with better abilities than a regular Coordinator.

"Eh, sure, no problem. I'll probably get a new ride as soon as I make it to Hangar B, so if the contract was going to provide a ride, they won't need to now." Kyou, for some reason, didn't mention what this ride of his was to his friend, but didn't care to say it quite yet, given that Ieyasu was with the Atlantic Federation branch of the OMNI Enforcer.

Ieyasu chuckled at that before saying, _"Understood, Kyou. I'll see you at the dock."_ With that, the line went dead; making Kyou put his phone away.

Kyou decided to run to the car terminal, guiding Qi**(3)** into his legs to make it there faster, which was part of the reason why he was so good at his contracts with different military units in the OMNI Enforcer. He wasn't a master at it like the Shaolin Monks of pre-Reconstruction War era China, but it was better than nothing, as he needed this training for his survival.

* * *

_In the Colony Harbor area_

As things were developing, a Marseille III-class vessel entered the colony harbor. An elderly Earth Forces captain waited until his ship docked in the harbor. Once the ship was finally docked, the captain of the ship let out a huge sigh of relief as he heaved his officer's cap off his head and said, "There you have it. This ship has completed its final mission. You served admirably as an escort Lieutenant La Flaga. I am in your debt."

"I'm just glad we made it without incident," replied Mu La Flaga. "Any ZAFT vessels in the vicinity?"

"Just two, but there's no cause for alarm," answered the captain. "They know they can't take any hostile action once we're docked."

"Because this place is neutral?" the Hawk of Endymion asked in a sarcastic tone. "What a joke that is."

As the captain and Mu were having their short conversation, five pilots wearing uniforms for Morgenroete came and saluted the captain and one of the pilots spoke saying, "Sir, the other five pilots that were chosen asked us to relay their thanks for your assistance in bringing us to Heliopolis. Sir, thank you for your assistance, sir."

"I'm just happy to help an old friend like Lieutenant Rena Imelia," the captain said with a slight grin on his face.

* * *

_Fifty Kilometers away from Heliopolis_

Hidden from view of the Heliopolis sensor arrays, two ZAFT ships, a _Nazca_-class and a _Laurasia_-class labeled the _Vesalius_ and the _Gamow_ respectively, were preparing to launch infiltration teams into the colony, both teams consisting of five Greencoats and three Redcoats. While they were preparing for the operation at hand, three of the ZAFT Reds were in the locker room of the _Vesalius_, preparing for the mission at hand by equipping themselves with assault rifles, combat knives, grenades, Qi conductive kunai and a pair of Qi conductive chakrams… okay, seriously, who in their right mind would take kunai and chakrams over modern weaponry?

One of the ZAFT Reds in the locker room, Athrun Zala, turned to the person who took the kunai and chakrams and asked, "Taikobo, I know you're a martial arts nut, but isn't this taking it a bit too far? I mean, you _do_ realize that we're headed to a battlefield where guns are the more common weapon required, right?"

Taikobo Akihito, a fellow Coordinator with tan hair in a braided ponytail and blood red eyes, was in the process of wrapping tags on the ends of some of the kunai in his possession when Athrun asked him his questions. When it came down to it, Taikobo needed to answer the questions at some point, but he was still in the process of adding the explosives to his kunai. With that in mind, Taikobo kept his attention focused on his work while he answered, "No to the first, yes to the second, Athrun."

As Taikobo continued to work on his project, Rusty looked at the project in awe as he saw the contraptions being attached to his friend's arms, which were simple-looking to a degree. Then again, as Rusty had learned earlier, that was a ruse to keep people from realizing the truth of the devices.

"Okay, guys, we need to hurry." Athrun reminded them as he looked at his watch. "If we're to get the Earth Forces new Mobile Weapons, we need to be leaving here in five minutes, and that means we can't waste any more time."

As Athrun finished his statement, Taikobo finished what he was doing, standing up and saying, "Okay, done." With that, Taikobo floated over to the door and left Athrun and Rusty behind.

* * *

Later after everyone who was selected for the mission was ready to go, the red haired ZAFT Redcoat went to his friend Athrun Zala and asked, "Hey man, have you heard anything from Canaver?"

Athrun looked to Rusty and studied him for a moment as he was thinking about their friend who was a Natural and enlisted in ZAFT willingly.

"You know, I'm not sure where he is," answered Athrun. "Last time I saw him; he complained to me about being Commander Le Creuset's errand boy and had asked me to help him get a different assignment. I talked to my father about getting him assigned somewhere else. Father didn't seem happy about it, but agreed to transfer him away from Commander Le Creuset."

"Dammit, we just missed him," Rusty said under his breath. "We gotta get our buddy back after this mission."

"Yeah, get the band back together," Athrun chuckled with a smile on his face. "Dearka would sure be happy about that."

"Not to mention he calls Rengi Canaver the 'Probie'," added Rusty. "And you were going to help him with his robotics project too."

"Yeah, yeah, don't remind me about that," said Athrun as he grabbed his helmet and headed towards the loading bay. "Come on Rusty, we got a job to do."

"Coming," said Rusty as he grabbed his own helmet and followed Athrun.

* * *

_Bridge of the _Vesalius

A short time later, in the bridge, the commander of the team in the area, Rau Le Creuset, was floating to the tactical table while saying to the ship's captain, Frederick Ades, "Try not to look so frustrated, Ades."

Turning his chair to face the commander, Captain Ades said, concern filling his voice, "Well, I don't imagine it would be too late to hear back from the council, at least."

Picking up the photo taken of one of the G-Weapons, Commander Le Creuset took a look at it before saying, "It _will_ be too late. I have a sixth sense about these things." Tossing the photo to Ades, who only took a look at it before he let it pass him by, Rau said, "If we don't seize the moment now, later we'll pay with our lives for our reluctance to take action. The Earth Forces new Mobile Weapons… we must secure them before they attempt to move them."

Ades, while he could agree with that line of thought, couldn't help but say, "I hope you know what you're doing, Commander. I don't want to see the team get in trouble for doing something that can easily be avoided."

Rau said nothing, knowing full well that Ades was worried for the future of their team, and, by extension, the rest of ZAFT.

* * *

_Car Terminal in Heliopolis_

As Kira, Setsuna, Banagher, Tolle and Miriallia walked over to the car terminal, they heard the sound of inane chatter from the population of Heliopolis' weirdest social group… the friends of Flay Allster. Namely, these friends were speaking amongst themselves about something that only Tolle and Miriallia missed out on, due to Kira, Setsuna, and Banagher having better ears.

"I'm seriously saying that Flay's seeing some other boy than Sai Argyle!" one exclaimed in a harsh whisper.

"Yeah? How do we know this is the truth?" another asked in the same tone of voice.

"How about we make a bet about who she's seeing?" a third asked in a softer whisper.

"In that case, we need a bookie, possibly a boy that doesn't have any romantic attachment to Flay." This whisper, from Jessica Darbins, was the fourth one to be heard.

"Well, who do we have keep track of the money for us?" whispered a fifth voice, Misha Hawkins.

"I could do it," Banagher said to Flay's five friends, getting the attention of not only them, but Tolle and Miriallia as well, as they didn't know what they were talking about.

Before Tolle and Miriallia could ask what he was thinking about, the first of the five friends asked him, "You could do _what_, exactly?"

"Banagher-kun is going to be your bookie, he means." Kira said to the five friends.

Setsuna, in her monotone, said, "You five were going to have a bet amongst yourselves about who Flay Allster was seeing right now. I'll be the one to settle the bets via statistics."

With that in mind, the five friends thought of the different boys that could possibly be seeing Flay Allster, with the first friend saying, "I'll bet that it's Albert Weston for 100 credits."

Setsuna, after taking a moment to think of the answer, said, "Albert going out with Flay is one out of ten."

Friend number two said, "Jake Minsly for 50 credits."

"Jake is one out of twenty-five."

Friend number three said, "Jack Sperlunky for 75 credits."

"Jack is one out of twenty."

Jessica shared a knowing look to Misha, who caught onto the meaning behind it and nodded, before Jessica said, "Misha and I are going to bet that its Kira-chan's brother for 500 credits each."

With her eyes bugging out, Kira yelled out, "Oh, no, you aren't getting Kyou involved in this-!"

"Kyou Yamato is one out of a thousand," Setsuna said, interrupting Kira's attempt at being a good big sister.

Kira turned to look at Setsuna in horror, yelling after a bit of time to process what she heard her friend say, "Mou~! Set-chan, why did you say that?!"

At that moment, as if to spare the group any trouble, a grown woman with black hair and black shades, wearing a red business suit, coughed into her hand to get their attention and, after getting the attention, said, "If you're not getting in, mind if I do?"

Tolle, aware of the situation, said, "Oh, we're sorry. Please." With that, the group got out of the way, so the woman and her group of two men walked right on by and into a car.

It was at that point when Flay came running up to the group that was there first, though she stopped a bit behind Tolle and Miriallia to catch her breath. When she finished, she said, "Sorry I'm late. Daddy had sent an email that was really long, saying that I needed to do some things for him by the time he came to pick me up."

Knowing that it would take a lot of effort to get Flay out of her prejudice against Coordinators, Kira wisely didn't say anything that would implicate her for being one herself, even if she was a First Generation Coordinator. If anything, Kira was against Blue Cosmos and other such terror cells, mainly because of a terrible experience with them when she was five.

At that moment, Kyou's voice could be heard coming from a few dozen meters away, "Gangway, guys, coming through! WATCH IT, FLAY!"

By the time they heard the warning, it was too late to stop the collision, as Kyou tackled Flay by accidentally flying into her. With Flay turned to face him, she saw that he was going too fast for her to move out of the way in time, as he ended up grabbing her and twisting around to keep her safe from the collision.

With an impressive thud, the group could only see that Kyou was on the bottom, with Flay on top of him and nestling her head in his chest. By the time Kyou and Flay realized what was going on; Tolle took a picture of the scene, which earned him a fist to the head by Kira.

"OW! What was _that_ for, Kira?!" Tolle exclaimed for most people in the area to hear.

"If you show that picture to _anyone_, Tolle, you will be castrated and made a Eunuch for the REA's top brass!" Kira stated in a threatening tone. Tolle, however, knew that she was not making idle threats.

She really had a vengeful streak to her name. Whenever she said something dangerous like that, she meant it, no questions asked. She even went as far as carrying out a threat when needed.

As far as Kyou and Flay were concerned, they quickly separated from each other and got up, both of them blushing from the contact. Without a word, they looked each other in the eye and sent a message to each other, saying with their eyes, "Let's not do that again if it can be avoided."

Eventually, the two groups split from each other and got in their cars, with Kyou stuck on the way to Kato's class. As they drove to their separate locations, Kyou grumbled under his breath, though it was entirely unintelligible.

* * *

_Morgenroete Astray Factory_

After cleaning the sword he used to strike down the Blue Cosmos officer, Rengi put the sword back in its sheath and was about to proceed into the hangar with mobile suits when someone spotted him and called out, "Hey you, no entry allowed past this point! Especially armed with two swords."

Rengi widened his eyes as he recognized the female voice.

"Same old Roux, always cautious and no sense of adventure," said Rengi as he slowly turned around to face his longtime childhood friend.

As Rengi turned around the young woman widened her eyes as she recognized the face of her long thought dead childhood friend.

"Rengi?" asked Roux as she slowly approached him. "Rengi Gutenberg, is that really you?"

"Roux Louka, it's great to see ya again," Rengi said as he took his childhood friend's hand gently and set it to his face as he let her feel his tan and silver striped face.

Before Rengi could say anything, Roux quickly wrapped her arms around Rengi's neck lightly and buried her face in his chest and tears ran down her cheek. Rengi then wrapped his own arms Roux's waist and was enjoying the moment. As both teens were reuniting with each other, Rengi then took notice that she was wearing a flight suit that hugged every curve of her body.

"I gotta say Roux, you look real sexy in that flight suit," said Rengi with a small smile on his face.

Roux then looked to her childhood friend with a smile on his face and then karate chopped him leaving a comical dent on his forehead _(1)_ and then glared at him as she snarled, "You should know better than to talk like that. I know your mother taught you better than that!"

"I was complimenting you, Roux," Rengi said as he rubbed his forehead lying on the floor.

"Doesn't matter if you... wait, you really think I look sexy in this flight suit?" Roux asked as she was about to stomp on Rengi.

"Heck yeah," answered Rengi as he peeled himself off the floor. "You know me Roux. You know the promise we made as kids."

"You mean the promise that we would date each other for a while and then get married?" asked Roux as she was surprised that her childhood friend remembered the pinkie swear pact they made as kids.

Rengi gave a slight nod and asked, "So whaddya say Roux, wanna honor a childhood pinkie swear pact?"

Roux gave a big grin as she answered, "You're not getting out of our pact that easily, buddy boy. But you gotta tell me where you've been. I spent seven years in agony and grief because I thought you were dead."

"What makes you think I want out of our pinkie swear pact?" Rengi asked with a grin on his face before he heard a suspicious sound coming in their direction.

"Rengi? What's wrong?" asked a curious Roux.

Rengi motioned for silence as he closed his eyes and listened for the sound by focusing his ears to the source of the sound. He then tracked the source of the sound to the hallway from where Roux came from. He then heard the sound of a grenade exploding and a couple screams of terror.

"Roux get into the hangar and secure what mobile suits you can," Rengi ordered his now girlfriend. "I'll be right behind you to secure any other suits for Orb. But..."

"But what Rengi?" asked a confused Roux.

"It's gonna cost Morgenroete a mobile suit," answered Rengi.

Roux chuckled as she definitely remembered that Rengi was always throwing out expensive costs to other kids when they were kids. She then said, "Still throwing out expensive costs for reimbursement I see. You haven't changed one bit, Rengi Gutenberg."

"That's just how I roll Roux," Rengi said with a smirk on his face as he drew both swords out ready for battle.

"You better not die," Roux said sternly as she pointed at him. "You're not allowed to die until we tie the knot. You got that?"

"Sure thing Roux," Rengi said as he gave a confident wink. "And I changed my last name to Canaver. So it's Rengi Canaver now."

Before Roux could say anything, Rengi shut the door behind and turned to face the incoming opponents.

* * *

_Over in Professor Kato's classroom_

By the time Kira, Kyou, and their friends made it to the classroom, Kyou could feel something was wrong in the room, but he had no proof. It was as if an important political figure was in the room ahead of them, and this political figure would cause all hell to break loose in the area, which he didn't want to have happen. Still, Tolle opened the door and announced their presence with a "Hey!"

Sai Argyle, a blonde-haired young man in a red and yellow coat over a black shirt and sea green pants and wearing orange-tinted shades over his hazel eyes, poked his head out from behind a tower and said, "Ah, Kira, Setsuna, Banagher, Kyou, you finally made it."

Kyou, for all intents and purposes, was still pissed that he was dragged over to the classroom. However, he knew when to keep his mouth shut, and now was one of those times. It was then when he noticed someone out of the corner of his left eye, a girl a year older than him with blonde hair and somehow natural yellow eyes, wearing a brown cap and overcoat with gray pants. Of course, when he noticed her eyes, that was when his feeling was confirmed.

_'Shit, shit, shit, shit, SHIT! It just _had_ to be her, didn't it, Kami-sama?!'_ Kyou was understandably mad at the situation, considering that the girl in question grated his nerves in a really painful way, so much so that he had to get a restraining order on her that her father all too happily approved for her opinion.

Before he could say anything, Tolle walked over to the computer station and, while pointing at the girl, asked Kuzzey Buskirk, "Who's that?"

Kuzzey, unaware of the girl's name and status, said, "Oh, professor's guest. They were apparently told to wait here."

Another boy that was manning the computer station, a young man with dark brown hair that had a silver highlight down the middle and hazel eyes with golden specks in them and wearing a blue shirt, green pants, and a Rolex that he received from a man he called "Gramps", said, "Yeah, hell if we know who that girl is. If anyone knows who the girl is, please say something to-"

At that moment, Kyou interrupted, saying, "Alright, that's it, I'm outta here! I am sick of these sorts of surprises that are happening because of some cosmic joke! You guys stay here with the royal bitch; at least _I_ have a good reason for leaving you to her, given my restraining order on her!" With that, Kyou got his things together and left the classroom, heading for Hangar B.

A few dozen seconds passed in silence, before Setsuna said in monotone, "That was perfectly useless of him."

Kira, worried for what her brother was thinking, turned to the girl and asked, "What did you do to my little brother to make him put a restraining order on you?"

The girl shrugged, before saying, "I don't remember meeting him before in my life. What's his name exactly?"

"Kyou Yamato," was the answer that the girl got from Banagher.

It was at that moment that the girl's eyes widened in shock, as she remembered the name from the past, though she thought the whole restraining order thing was a joke. With a look of shock, the girl turned to Kira and asked her, "What do I do to make it up with him?"

Kira sighed a bit, before she said, "I honestly don't know how you'd make it up with him, but if it makes you feel better, I'll speak with him about it. I don't want you to be on his restraining order list forever."

Sai then remembered something that he needed to do. With that thought, he said to Kira, "Hey, Kira, Professor Kato handed me this for you. It's extra stuff."

With a sigh of annoyance, Kira looked at the disk that Sai had in his left hand and took hold of it, before saying, "Y'know, I wonder what exactly the professor wants us to really work on with this? If he wants us to make Mobile Suits…." Suddenly, a burst of inspiration hit her, in which she went to a seat and pulled out her laptop. After turning it on again, she put the disk inside, revealing that the disk had Mobile Suit schematics!

Miriallia, who was looking at Kira's face, couldn't help but wonder what was going through her head at the sight of whatever was on the disk. Setsuna and Banagher, on the other hand, were about to find out.

_'What sort of organization requested that we build Mobile Suits for them?'_ Kira asked in her head.

_'What sort of Mobile Suits, exactly?'_ came Setsuna's own question from her own head.

Before Kira could ask out loud how that was possible, Banagher answered, _'We're all Newtypes, the next phase of Human Evolution. It shouldn't be hard for us to do this in theory, though I hadn't had a conversation like this before now.'_ After looking through Kira's eyes momentarily, Banagher felt his eyes widen as he asked, _'No way, are those Gundams?!'_

Both Kira and Setsuna blinked as they asked, _'Gundams? What are those?'_

Before Banagher could answer, the door opened one more time, revealing an attractive girl that was almost as sexy as Kira and Setsuna that was still in a dating crisis. When this girl, a girl with blue hair and purple eyes and wearing a Martial Arts gi that made her a student of Touhou Fuhai, walked in, she saw Kyou wasn't in, so she went over to the boy next to Kuzzey and asked, "Hiro, where did Kyou go? I thought he was going to be here."

Katsuhiro 'Hiro' Yamanashi looked at the girl in front of him, Emiri 'Amy' Takahata, and answered, "Blame the fact that he has a restraining order on the guest over there. He probably needed to get some fresh air somewhere, Amy."

* * *

_With Kyou_

As it turned out, Kyou was storming out to Hangar B when he suddenly came across a man that screamed 'Suspicious' at him. By the time the man saw him, he asked Kyou, "Excuse me, but do you know where I can find a certain Banagher Links? My boss wants me to make sure he gets something, but I don't know where to look for him."

Kyou, still wary of the man, asked, "Would he know who you are, particularly?"

The man, aware that he needed to answer, said, "Not personally, no. However, my boss is the chairman of his previous school, and I happen to be a security official for the area of the school. He'll be sure to recognize the name Gael Chan somehow."

Kyou felt that was an adequate answer, so he said, "Alright. You'll find him in the last classroom on your left, the one marked with the nameplate 'Kato'. You can't miss it, Mister Chan." With that, Kyou continued down to Hangar B, not even aware of what sort of Hell would be raised in the colony.

* * *

_Outside Heliopolis_

The masked ZAFT commander looked to his watch and began to do a silent countdown. Once he got down to zero, he gave a slight nod to the captain of the Vesalius.

"It's time," Rau said to Ades.

Ades gave a slight nod of agreement to the masked white Commander.

"Weigh anchor, Vesalius launch," ordered Ades as the engines to the Nazca-class vessel came to life as well as the Laurasia-class ship behind it.

Both ZAFT ships steamed towards the neutral colony of Heliopolis and were advancing despite receiving calls from Heliopolis Colony Control. As Rau looked to the colony, he remembered the orders he received from the National Defense Committee Chairman Patrick Zala. He was ordered to kill the adopted son of Eileen Canaver and make it look like the terrorist organization Blue Cosmos had killed him. It seemed that for the moment, the White Duelist could've taken Rengi Canaver's life while he was still his errand boy.

* * *

_Back to the Morgenroete Astray Factory_

Rengi charged towards the sounds of explosions and gunfire. Screams could be heard as well as those firing seemed to be attacking the factory workers.

"Death to all who betray the new inheritors of the Earthsphere!" shouted an armed combatant before lowering his rifle to finish off the wounded Morgenroete factory worker.

Before he could finish off the wounded worker, who pleaded for his life, the combatant was disarmed as a knife was thrown to the rifle, like a boomerang, and knocked the rifle out of the combatant's hands.

"What the hell are you doing?" Rengi demanded to the combatant. "Killing an armed opponent is one thing, but attacking unarmed civilians is low, even for you."

"Shut up," lashed the combatant. "You're just like them; you've betrayed the new inheritors of the Earthsphere. Prepare to die for the liberation of all Coordinators."

"I see, you're with the Coordinator Liberation Army," deduced Rengi. "I'm ZAFT Ensign Rengi Canaver, on assignment for PLANT Supreme Chairman Siegel Clyne."

"I couldn't give a fuck if Jesus Christ sent you here," the CLA commando snarled at Rengi, "you're going to be killed so that we Coordinators will take what rightfully belongs to us and slaughter enough Naturals to make them bow their heads to us and acknowledge that we are their masters."

Rengi sighed and said as he drew his swords, "So what my biological parents fought for was for nothing. They fought to ensure that Coordinators had equal rights. But I guess that you CLA morons are beyond reasoning and you're no different than those fuckers from Blue Cosmos!"

The CLA combatant had heard enough from Rengi and leapt to retrieve the fallen rifle. But Rengi was faster than him as he charged at him with lightning quick speed and sliced his arms off causing him to scream in agony and bleed out to death. After killing the CLA combatant, more of them then showed up to see their comrade fell by a lone employee of Morgenroete, equipped with two swords.

"He's trying to stop our mission, kill the insect!" shouted the leader.

The other CLA combatants needed no instruction as they leveled their rifles and prepared to fire on Rengi when he charged at them, weaving through the gunfire and breaking up their formation. A few bullets managed to hit Rengi or at least singe him forcing him to drop back. Rengi then recovered quickly and dashed at the CLA commandos, which startled them.

"What the fuck?!" asked one commando. "I thought he was just a Natural!"

"I'm an Enhanced Natural, bitches," Rengi shot back as he flipped the birdie to the CLA commandos. "My biological mother was a Coordinator and kept it a secret from the other wives and their BC-bought and paid for politician husbands."

"You're an even worse monster!" exclaimed a commando in a panic. "Let's kill this monster."

Before they could even level their rifles, all but one of them were cut down in an instant, but one managed to dodge the vicious sword swipe from Rengi's longest sword. The one who dodged the sword swipe wore what appeared to be a flight suit similar to an OMNI Enforcer's flight suit and a mask concealing their face. The person seemed to be a Coordinator and was on par with Rengi.

_'Damn, he's good,'_ thought Rengi. '_But why the hell is he with these CLA bastards?_'

"Hey, who the hell are you?" Rengi asked the masked figure.

"My name is of no importance to you," the masked figure answered Rengi. "I and my two comrades are, no, were only here to claim mobile suits that have developed behind the back of the Earth Alliance... as well as ZAFT."

Rengi then looked to the slain CLA commandos and noticed one slain figure wearing a black flight suit, lying in a pool of his own blood. Then he noticed another figure in an orange flight suit lying in a pool of her own blood. Rengi then went to examine the slain figure as he turned the lifeless body of the person in the orange flight and then taking note the slender figure of a woman. This revelation came as a shock to him as his eyes widened in horror at the sight the woman he had slain.

"N-No... n-no... N-NO!" Rengi shouted in anguish at the sight of the slain woman. "Oh god! What have I done?!"

The masked opponent took advantage of this and dashed at Rengi, punching him in the face and knocking him down easily.

"What a shame," the masked opponent said coldly to Rengi. "My masters had heard you were known as the greatest swordsman of the PLANTs. You're not even worth their time or effort if you wail and lament at something trivial as slaying a woman."

* * *

At around the time Rengi was finishing his fight with the CLA commandos; Mu arrived at the bridge of the _Marseilles III_-class vessel, the _OES Crescent Star_, and asked, "Enemies?"

The old captain answered, "Two vessels, _Nazca_ and _Laurasia_-class. Confirmed Mobile Suits launching prior to jamming of communications."

Mu's response was to say "Huh. Have Luke and Gail board their Space Flags." Looking at the CIC controller, Mu ordered, "Don't deploy them yet!"

* * *

_Secret Harbor in Heliopolis_

One of the ensigns from the _Crescent Star_ was starting to get worried. He couldn't tell what it was that made him worried, but something was wrong with the situation, he just knew it. Then again, given that ZAFT was attacking the colony, it wouldn't be impossible to assume that they had already planted bombs in the area around the harbor for the _Archangel_-class _Archangel_.

With the possibility planted in his mind, the ensign said to Captain Keeler, "Captain-"

"Don't panic," Keeler interrupted. "If we overreact, we'll be falling right into their hands." Turning to face the ship that he would be the captain of, he ordered, "Let Heliopolis deal with this situation!"

By this point, the phone rang, which got Keeler to pick it up. "Captain Keeler here," he spoke into the phone. "What? Yes, I know. We're prepared to launch if we have to," he finished before hanging up. As soon as he hung up, he turned around to point at the woman who was previously wearing a red business suit, now wearing an Atlantic Federation Space Naval uniform, and ordered to her and one of the two men that were with her, "Get Lieutenant Ramius for me! Commence transfer of the G-Weapons!"

"Sir," the woman said while she and the man saluted their Captain. With that, they headed off to find the Lieutenant Ramius person, and hopefully get the G-Weapons collected before they could be stolen.

* * *

_In the Space outside Heliopolis_

Miguel Aiman, leading a group of pilots in GINNs that numbered six in all, couldn't help but think about how they were going about things the wrong way here. For starters, the blond-haired pilot in a green uniform was probably the only one who didn't like the fact that Rau Le Creuset was ordering them to strike a blow to the OMNI Enforcer while attacking a neutral colony, while the other pilots joyfully volunteered to do this. For another, Miguel figured that they could have attacked the warship and the Mobile Suits as they were leaving the colony's airspace, but that didn't seem to be the case here.

However, he couldn't figure out why he was the only current pilot that had this thought process, as the rest of the team seemed to buy the idiotic crap that Le Creuset fed them… except for the newbies and Rengi Canaver. Miguel hoped that Yzak at least could learn to think with the head on top, instead of acting impulsively, but that seemed to be a far and away goal for right now. While Miguel hoped to keep the newbies safe, he knew that those "team bonding sessions" that Le Creuset had would probably start again with a successful mission, which were disastrous to just about everyone with a functioning brain.

Shaking his head, Miguel looked around the area with his GINN's camera, before blinking a few times at the sight he was seeing out to his left. What he saw was a warship unlike anything he'd actually seen before, what with it sporting two really weird cannons on the underside of the places where they were expected to launch machines from, though they could easily be retracted if needed**(4)**.

Now that he thought about it, what was such a ship doing out here, anyway? Also, why was he feeling something strange from the direction of the ship, anyway?

* * *

_Pilot Locker Room, Mysterious Ship_

A pilot in his early twenties with blond hair and blue eyes, wearing a white and blue pilot suit that had become the standard amongst Londo Bell, was currently preparing for his recon mission in this sector of space when he felt someone awaken as a Newtype all of a sudden. This caused him to pause in his actions for a short bit, wondering who this Newtype was, before he shrugged it off. It was probably his imagination at play.

With that, he put on his good luck charm, a bracelet with a charm that had an engraving of a bi-plane on either side of it**(5)**. As soon as he was done, he left for his unit, helmet in hand.

* * *

With Commander Le Creuset, he said as his order to a Green Coat operating the ship's controls, "We'll move in once we take out the mining area."

"Yes, sir," was the reply that he got.

* * *

Outside the colony, Mistral Worker Pods were launching from within the Colony itself, as Orb and its colonies were too poor to afford any Mobile Suits from any of the major powers before they could steal data from the G-Project. By the time the Mistrals made it fifteen kilometers out….

* * *

Within the colony, people were going about their regular routines, even though some of them were unaware of the problems inside the colony at this very time. While families and business people were going about their days, Flay and her friends were going shopping like they normally would, while Kira and her friends were busy with their mock Mobile Suit that was in the form of an exo-skeleton. While this was going on, street musicians were playing their instruments, and Mobile Suit trailers were moving away from the 37th factory district as a woman ordered in a commanding tone, "To the _Archangel_! On the double!"

It was then that all hell broke loose, as the explosion in the secret harbor rocked throughout the whole colony. While the colony was rocking, many things were happening at the same time, namely in regards to the Mobile Suits and Mobile Armor that were moving into position.

* * *

Mu was all geared up to launch in his Moebius Zero as he got in it, helmet on and all, when the old captain of the _Crescent Star_ called to him and said, _"Lieutenant La Flaga-"_

"Launch the ship!" Mu ordered as he set the Zero up for combat. "The harbor's about to be taken over! I'm launching, too."

* * *

As if to prove Mu's words true, the group of GINNs from the Le Creuset team were quick to gun down the Mistrals that were launched in defense of their colony, though it would quickly become a stalemate when Mu and his wingmen took flight into the battlefield. As Mu, Luke and Gail maneuvered their units to intercept the GINNs, four of them were stuck in the space between their home ships and the Zero and Space Flags. The other two, piloted by Matthew Sims and Miguel, barely made it past in time to go into the colony harbor of Area 7.

Shortly after Miguel and Matthew made it to the colony harbor, blasting away at the control centers while inside, the former felt as if there was a terror cell heading for the location they were at roughly the same time. Miguel didn't know if he could prove it, but it was confirmed when he saw C-type GINNs with a dark-gray color scheme instead of an olive-green that GINNs normally have, which meant….

"Oh, shit," Miguel said to himself. "Not the CLA of all people!"

* * *

_With the Infiltration Team_

Meanwhile, a young male Coordinator with silver hair and blue eyes in a red pilot suit and helmet, Yzak Joule, was looking through the high-powered binoculars and saw that three of the prototype Mobile Suits being led away from the 37th Factory District. When he saw the Mobile Suits in the trailers, he said, "That's it." Putting down his binoculars, he said to the rest of the group, "It's exactly as Commander Le Creuset said."

One of Yzak's closer friends, a Red Coat of Middle Eastern descent with blond hair and purple eyes named Dearka Elsman, turned to face Yzak and asked, "You mean the one about prodding them to get their stuff?" Shaking his head in disappointment, he said, "Don't let the CLA sway your thinking behind our backs, Yzak, unless you want to be killed in battle by someone like the Probie."

Yzak, who was about to say something relating to what Rau Le Creuset would say, stopped as he turned to face Dearka before asking, "Dearka, where did _that_ come from?"

Dearka, fortunately, didn't have to answer that question as Rusty yelled, "Can it, guys! We need to get the Mobile Suits out of OMNI Enforcer hands _pronto_!"

Seeing the glue that held the team together snap at them really got the team to stop and think about how screwed up things were for them if they had to rely on _Rusty_ to get them doing their jobs. Eventually, though, they set up the beacons for their support.

* * *

_Back to the battle in the Astray Factory_

As the battle almost seemed to end between the masked assailant and Rengi, the masked assailant started to walk casually to where the Astray prototype mobile suits were being kept for assembly, testing and future shipping to Orb. Before the doors could open, Rengi was quick to get back up and darted towards the mysterious assailant and tackled him to the ground as the doors to where the Astrays were kept opened.

"No way, you're not getting any of them," said Rengi as he got back up and drew his swords once again and took a battle stance. "And you're not taking _her_from me either you CLA bastard!"

"CLA?" asked the masked assailant. "You think that my comrades and I are part of the CLA? Do not assume that because we came with the CLA that we were ever part of their organization. No, they were merely expendable fools that we had hired to assist us in coming to this facility. It's a shame really, but I shall nonetheless claim one of these mobile suits."

The masked assailant then just strode past Rengi and claimed the fully assembled MBF-P05 Gundam Astray Mirage Frame.

"Get back here you son of a bitch!" demanded Rengi as the masked man lifted off and left the Astray factory without a mess or an argument.

"_Rengi, quick get in the Astray Silver Frame,_" Roux ordered her boyfriend through her mobile suit's intercom. "_You wanted a mobile suit from Morgenroete. Well, here's your chance to claim a mobile suit. I'd say Silver Frame's just your type and has your favorite color too._"

Rengi agreed with Roux and was quick to get in the cockpit of Gundam Astray Silver Frame. As he got in the cockpit and sat down, the controls came to life on their own, which startled the teen and caused him to set his hands on the controls of the mobile suit.

'_Scanning handprints,_' read the screen as his handprints were being scanned from the controls of the mobile suit. It took only thirty seconds for Rengi's handprints to be scanned as the cockpit automatically closed and the mobile suit came to life on its own.

"Huh, what the heck is going on here?" Rengi asked himself as Roux's face came on the visual COM.

"_You like the new mobile suit?_" asked Roux from the cockpit of MVF-P01 Gundam Astray Ventus Frame.

She got no reply at first as she heard Rengi going through a checklist after a few minutes of silence.

"_Alright buddy, can you move your legs?_" Rengi asked the AI as it moved the legs of the mobile suit.

"What are you doing?" Roux asked her boyfriend.

"_Gotta make sure the mobile suit is working properly,_" answered Rengi before going back to his checklist. "_Alright, Silver, try moving your arms, buddy._"

The AI did as it was instructed by its pilot and moved both arms and then moved the fingers too.

"_Looking good Silver,_" Rengi said as he appeared to be satisfied. "_You got any weapons you can use, buddy_?"

"Check the storage container to your right," answered Roux. "Walk the mobile suit to the container and it'll activate the container, giving Silver Frame the weapons it can carry."

"_Sure thing,_" acknowledged Rengi as he and the combat assistant AI made their way over to the storage container to retrieving Silver Frame's weapons. "_And Roux..._"

"Yes Rengi?" Roux asked as she cocked her head in interest.

"_It's good to be back with you... my Lavender Blossom,_" answered Rengi with a grin on his face.

"Oh, how I missed hearing you say that to me," Roux replied with a beaming smile on her face as the Silver Frame was at the container and had Silver Frame's weapons loaded on it.

* * *

_With Miguel_

Miguel's GINN beeped as the combined CLA and regular forces flew into the colony, showing him a map of the colony and where the prototype Mobile Suits for the OMNI Enforcer were at. When he looked at the monitors that showed outside the GINN, he somehow got a strange feeling that there was someone with great power in the area, which was somehow similar to what he felt from the ship earlier. He scanned the area below, looking for the source of the feeling this time, only to realize it was coming from a building that looked suspiciously like a school attached to Morgenroete.

_"Seems they found the treasure chest,"_ Matthew said through the comm link, snapping Miguel back to reality. _"Sector S, factory district 37!"_

Miguel looked at Matthew before sighing, which led to him saying, "Matt, we really gotta get this over with before we possibly get thrown in the slammer, especially since we're invading a neutral colony for new Mobile Suits. Who knows what political repercussions will be in place after this is done?"

Matthew shrugged, unsure of the answer himself, before he said, _"I'm pretty sure the Commander can get us out of trouble in that case. It wouldn't be the first time he's done so."_

Miguel gave Matthew a sharp glare that would make even Le Creuset back away in terror, before saying, "Maybe he got others out of trouble to save his own hide before, Matt, but I seriously doubt he'd do so out of legitimate concern. Hell, do you _know_ what the bastard did to his old team before getting us and the newbies, or do you want me to break you out of that brainwashing?!"

Matthew, for his part, never got to answer that question before a CLA Greencoat replaced him on Miguel's comm link, which led to the CLA soldier saying, _"Greencoat Aiman, what you were about to tell Greencoat Sims is strictly classified information that was stricken from the records for _good reason_, and not meant to be shared with anyone at all. The fact that you know of it is grounds for execution of you and your family as per His Excellency's orders."_

Miguel growled at the agent of the CLA, before he turned off the comm link, hoping for some time to think without distractions. It was at this time that he noticed something out of his peripheral vision, an unknown Mobile Suit model that looked like a painted G-Weapon that had a mirage as the color scheme, only it was moving at a faster speed than a regular GINN by a long shot. Miguel, quickly looking for the source of where that particular Mobile Suit came from, found a factory that looked to be in the opposite direction of District 37.

He shook his head, remembering that he had a mission to take care of, even if it was against his code of conduct. Before he could clear his mind of distractions, though, he saw a silver Mobile Suit that looked like the one that passed him by being followed by a Mobile Armor (or potentially a Mobile Suit that could turn into a Mobile Armor). He knew that the two of them were working together, but he didn't know who was piloting what, and he wasn't about to fight two unknown units at once.

Suddenly, the Silver unit came rushing at him, arm outstretched and ready to grab hold of his GINN. This would normally be a problem, but, while Miguel didn't know the capabilities of the Silver unit, he didn't need to worry, as a direct link opened up to show the pilot of the unit as….

"Rengi?!" Miguel cried out, grateful that he turned off the other comm links, as the sight of Rengi in a Morgenroete outfit would have put most of them into conniptions.

_"Hey, Miguel! Long time no see!"_ was the immediate reply, seeing that Rengi was really happy for some reason. It would need to be apparent soon, especially as Miguel was flying with the CLA against his will, and not in his… custom… GINN.

Oh.

_Now_ it made sense.

"_You know that guy piloting the GINN?_" asked Roux on the other COM link.

"_Yup, this knucklehead is Miguel Aiman,_" answered Rengi. "_We graduated from Boot Camp together with five other guys who went to the ZAFT Red Academy._"

"Who are you calling a knucklehead?!" demanded Miguel as he had his GINN ready to punch the Silver Frame.

"_Alright, that's enough out of both of you knuckleheads,_" Roux said sternly.

Miguel had a slight smirk on his face as he asked Rengi, "Can I bang your friend when we get back to the _Vesalius_?"

That question set the Enhanced Natural off as it seemed like Silver Frame had a book in its hand and slammed on the GINN's head leaving a comical dent on its head._(2)_

"_If anyone is gonna bang my girlfriend, it's gonna be me... Uh if she wants me to bang he_r," Rengi snarled at Miguel.

"_Good answer Rengi,_" Roux said in an all too sickly sweet voice. "_But I have wanted to get laid. Oh Rengi..._"

"_Um... y-yes?_" asked a nervous Rengi.

"_How would you like to get laid tonight?_" Roux asked her boyfriend still using her sickly sweet voice.

"Dude, you would be a dumbass to say no to getting laid tonight," Miguel said to his best friend.

"_What makes you think I don't want to get laid?_" Rengi shot back.

Miguel gave a grin as he said, "Good man. You're really becoming a man now."

"_Are we going or what?_" asked Roux as she brought focus back to the three of them.

"_R-Right...,_" answered Rengi as he remembered that his team's mother ship was nearby. "_But I'm gonna need a ride there, Roux._"

"_Pilot Aiman, you still have the mission to think about,_" said Matthew.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Miguel said as he huffed in frustration before looking to Rengi and Roux. "You guys need to get outta here. Especially with the CLA on this mission."

"_I've already encountered the CLA,_" Rengi said bitterly. "_Struck the fuckers down after I tried to tell them that I was on assignment for Chairman Clyne._"

* * *

_Outside Heliopolis_

Luke and Gail were having a bit of difficulty when it came to successfully fighting off the four remaining GINNs, mainly because they were more used to fighting in their Moebius units while in outer space. Then again, Mu was the only one that actually _needed_ to use a Mobile Armor to bring out his full fighting potential, when most EA soldiers had Mobile Suits to pilot that could bring out better fighting potential than if they were stuck with units like the Moebius Mobile Armor.

As the two of them fired their linear rifles at the GINNs in flight mode, the ZAFT Mobile Suits dodged and tried to fire on the Space Flags that were giving them grief, only for various Mistrals to get in the way. All around the battlefield, various Mistrals were shot down and obliterated on the spot, mainly because of their bad combat abilities.

In his Moebius Zero, Mu near instantly deployed two of his gun barrels to aid in the fight against the ZAFT Mobile Suits that were in the area, both of them guided by wires that kept them from floating away so far. As he guided the gun barrels and his Zero away from incoming gunfire, the GINN facing off against him kept trying to fire on the Mobile Armor, though its' pilot was unable to land a decent hit on the unit.

A few seconds later, the Moebuis Zero opened fire with one of its gun barrels that were deployed, getting a sneak attack in from behind the GINN that damaged it near the left wing. A shot from the linear cannon hit it in the left shoulder, destroying the shoulder joint and taking off the arm in a fluid motion. With that, the GINN darted away from the area, with Gail's Space Flag right behind it.

As Mu put the gun barrels back in place, he called out in hopes of keeping his wingman alive, "GAIL!"

Unfortunately, Gail was busy trying to shoot down this particular GINN in his Flag's flight mode, as he forgot to switch it back to MS mode. While he was thinking he could take on a GINN in flight mode, he aimed the Flag's linear rifle at the retreating GINN before it drew its Heavy Sword and charged right at him, sword ready to cleave the Flag in half!

Gail barely had time to cry out in terror before his unit was sliced in two.

* * *

_At the Morgenroete factory_

One of the disguised EA soldiers in the area, Hamana Newgate, cursed internally as he realized that there was a problem with trying to reach their future base of operations. When he calmed down a bit after realizing it, he called to his superior in the area and said, "Lieutenant, the ship isn't responding, status unknown."

At that point, gunfire could be heard from the distance, which prompted the Lieutenant, the woman from earlier, to look up and behind Hamana so she could see six GINNs coming in for the kill. Four of them were painted in the CLA colors, while the other two were painted in the standard colors, which wasn't consolation enough that four of the six were from a known Coordinator-based terror cell. As they managed to dodge the assault rifle bullets that were fired from the GINNs, she waited for the dust to clear before she yelled, "Those are ZAFT's and the CLA's!" Turning to face a second male officer, she ordered, "Prep GN-001, X-105, 112, 212, 301, 303 and 309 for combat!" Getting up and rushing to one of the machines in order to protect them, she further ordered, "Get them out of the factory district!"

The officer followed suit and yelled, "Yes, ma'am!"

The CLA GINNs and Matthew's GINN were a lot more indiscriminate with their firing on Heliopolis territory than Miguel was, destroying a lot of the property in the area, even as Miguel was doing his absolute best to limit the property damage. Truth be told, Miguel was feeling guilty for doing this, but he had his orders.

It didn't mean that he wouldn't defect in his custom GINN if need be. He wanted to prove to himself that he was fighting for the right side… which didn't seem likely that it was the PLANTs.

* * *

Back inside the school, Kira, Setsuna and Banagher were in front of the elevator with their friends, hoping to get a ride up to the surface of the colony, when the power flickered off. Miriallia looked around in worry and asked what was going on, while Sai made his way to the door that led to the stairs, questioning the line of people in front of him going up the stairs, "What's this all about?"

One man stopped ascending the stairway long enough to say, "I don't know." With that, he continued walking up the stairs.

The man right behind the first man to answer had a more helpful answer, saying, "We're under attack by ZAFT. Some of their Mobile Suits have infiltrated the colony!"

With a gasp, the guest looked to her left, expression firm even as the man suggested, "You should hurry, too!"

As if ignoring what she heard, the guest ran towards the corridor heading for the 37th Factory District, with Kira, Setsuna and Banagher having a quick mental conversation.

_'Do we go after her?'_ Kira asked the other two.

_'We better do so, especially as she has the feel of important person all over her,'_ Banagher answered.

_'I forgot to mention this, but I absolutely_ hate _politicians and diplomats, so don't expect me to save her if she's related to one,'_ was Setsuna's reply.

Before they could do anything about the situation, Hiro and Amy ran off in the direction that the guest ran towards, which prompted the three of them to head off after them.

Tolle, who was looking back in their direction, yelled from the doorway, "Guys!"

Banagher turned around temporarily and called back, "We'll be right back!" With that, he rushed towards the others as they ran towards the guest.

* * *

Outside the colony, Silver Frame and Ventus Frame were making their way towards the mother ship of the unit Rengi belonged to. Rengi had a grin on his face as he was eager for two things, to recruit Roux into the Silver Tigers unit and for a personal project he had been trying to do. Like Athrun, he wanted to specialize in robotics. On board the _Silver Fang_, Rengi was already hard at work and his first and hopefully his only mobile suit, the Enhanced Natural believed to have found his inspiration for his next 'piece of artistry.' The Gundam-type mobile suits provided what he well wanted to do.

"This is the way ZAFT can do testing on a smaller scale," Rengi said to himself. "I just hope everything goes alright. Need to make sure I put in my order to MMI for smaller scale of Silver's beam weapons. Probably for Roux' new friend too, once I have it built completely.

"Just building the movable frame will be a challenge in itself," continued Rengi. "Maybe need to talk to Athrun later about it."

* * *

When the GINNs of the CLA and the Le Creuset team landed in the streets of Heliopolis, they began targeting different military vehicles and nearly every vehicle that was in the area of the Mobile Suit trailers, shooting their assault rifles at anything that would pose a threat under normal circumstances. This included mobile missile platforms that the GINNs had to dodge the missiles of _before_ firing rounds into the platforms.

When the infiltration team flew in their jetpacks over to the Mobile Suit Trailers, Yzak gave orders as one of the Red Coats in the area, saying, "Destroy any parts we can't carry and the factories. Intel indicates six of them." Seeing three of the Mobile Suits that intel pointed out, Yzak quickly asked, "Are the other three still inside?"

Athrun chose that time to speak up, saying, "Rusty, Taikobo and I will continue. Yzak, you guys take these three."

Yzak turned his head to face Athrun and replied, "Okay, go for it!" Turning his head to face the others, he said, "If you're piloting one, be sure to disarm the self-destruct, first!"

As soon as the potential pilots made it to the ground, more of the Earth Alliance soldiers disguised as Morgenroete employees dropped dead, mainly due to machine gun fire that hit them dead center in the torso area of their bodies. With more of the soldiers dead, the few remaining ground soldiers attempted to hide in the MS trailers, only for a few ZAFT commandos to get the bright idea to throw grenades in the corridors of the trailers, blowing the soldiers to kingdom come.

* * *

_With the pilot from the Mysterious Ship_

The pilot, having already boarded his Mobile Unit, a deep blue jet of sorts**(6)**, waited for the CIC to allow him to launch into the battlefield. He thought back on how this whole battle played out in front of him, with the Zaku knock-offs flying at the ready while the worker pods of sorts were being slaughtered by these Mobile Suits. He just hoped that the Earth government was ready to crush whatever rebellion was going on, unless there _wasn't_ a unifying Earth government.

Then again, he _did_ see a couple of Mobile Suits that could transform fighting the enemy units, which proved that the Earth Government(s) had some sort of Mobile Suit program(s) going on. If he were to choose a side, it would most likely be with the Earth-based units, though those seemed to be going up in flames as well.

Then again, he needed to make contact with whoever was in charge of the colony here, especially if he was going to enter the colony at all and see about stopping any further thefts of the Gundams in the area… or have the communication's officer talk with the Colony Control for him.

Suddenly, a comm link opened up on his end, showing the communication's officer, Mihiro Oikawa, as she said, _"Ensign Riddhe, we couldn't get in touch with the Colony Control. It seems like they were killed in the ongoing battle."_

Riddhe Marcenas groaned in frustration, especially as he was hoping that this wouldn't be the case, but it was a fool's hope. Still, he had a mission to accomplish, and that was to stop this battle from destroying the colony.

"Do I have permission to launch, Ensign Mihiro?" Riddhe asked, as he was eager to get to the battlefield to stop the senseless deaths.

_"Yes, Ensign Riddhe, you do. We're opening the launching bay right now."_ Mihiro replied.

True to form, the launching bay opened up, letting Riddhe take a good look at what was going on. Seeing the battlefield for what it was… it was a huge massacre.

Upon seeing his launch timing near the launch point, he put his good luck charm on all the way, before he said, "Riddhe Marcenas, Romeo-008, LAUNCHING!"

With that, he launched his Mobile Unit out into outer space, surprising the combatants on both sides… especially the ZAFT forces, as he fired his rifle at the GINNs that were attacking the Mistrals and the remaining OMNI Enforcer units.

* * *

As Kyou made his way to the B-Hangar, he felt the ground tremors from the explosions rip through the colony interior. Not liking the sounds of the explosions getting closer to his location, he sped up, looking for his Gundam, which was supposed to be around here somewhere….

Suddenly, a tingle in his senses alerted him to something to his right, making him look in that direction. What he saw was most certainly impressive….

He saw a Gundam lying on its back in a special cradle, the cone on its back showing that it was indeed the one Ribbons had promised him. The head looked like that of a Gundam, even if it had antennas that doubled as a secondary crest. The main crest was a simple golden 'V', and the eyes were currently powered down, a dull greenish blue at the moment. The color scheme of the main body was white for the arms, legs, lower torso and head, yellow for the soles of the feet, the mark in the middle of the 'V' crest and the mid-torso, and blue for the upper torso. There were seven pod-like features equipped to its back, which he guessed were the equivalent of Gunbarrels, but made for firing GN Beams**(7)**.

All in all, he liked what he was seeing, and proceeded to go into the Gundam.

* * *

Hiro and Amy finally caught up with the guest, with Kira, Setsuna and Banagher trailing right behind them. As Hiro grabbed hold of the guest's arm, he questioned, "What are you doing? It's a dead end there!"

"Stop tailing me! You better get out of here and hook back up with the others," was the girl's indignant reply, before an explosive shock wave hit the area… knocking the girl's hat off her head.

When Kira, Setsuna and Banagher got there, Kira asked incredulously, "You're… Lady Cagalli?"

Looking at Kira, Cagalli demanded, "Yeah, who'd you think I was?! Let's hear it!"

Amy stepped in between Kira and Cagalli and said, "It's not important right now, Your Highness. We need to get out of here immediately, and I highly doubt we can retrace our steps, so we need to go forward to a factory district."

At that point, Amy's words were proven true, as a secondary explosion hit the corridor area.

"So… which way to a factory district?" Banagher asked.

Setsuna sighed with slight annoyance, before she said, "Follow me. I've been this way before, so I know where the nearest factory district is." With that, she took the lead to the shelters.

* * *

On board the _Silver Fang_, Rengi and Roux were hard at work with Rengi's little project. For Rengi, he was eager to have a partner outside of battle. He also hoped to contribute to the research done by MMI into creating new weapons for ZAFT. He also wanted to have another companion to speak to besides Roux and the others on the Silver Fang.

"Rengi, are you sure that this is going work?" Roux asked as Rengi put the finishing touches on the body of the smaller version of the Silver Frame. "I know you want to create a smaller version of your mobile suit but don't you think that you should wait until we get to a base that has the proper equipment?"

"Nah, I got everything I need here," Rengi answered Roux. "Besides, I'd like to get Silver out of the mobile suit whenever we're not in combat."

"Hmm, good point," Roux said thoughtfully as she helped with the finishing touches.

"Alright, now we just need Silver to go through the same tests like back in Morgenroete when I picked up Silver and Silver Frame," Rengi said to Roux with a grin on his face.

"I heard you call the mobile suit Silver," Roux said as she made an observation.

"No, that's the name I gave the AI of the Silver Frame," corrected Rengi. "Besides, I need a partner to help me pilot Silver Frame. I'm sure you'll need a partner to help you pilot your mobile suit."

"Hmm, not really," Roux said with a slight shrug of her shoulders. "But I would like to have my own assistant nonetheless."

"Don't worry you'll get your own assistant," Rengi assured his girlfriend. "We just need to study the blueprints of Ventus Frame and how to allow your partner to have transformable capabilities like your mobile suit.

"And for that, I'm gonna need to contact Athrun Zala, a buddy of mine so we can work on the problem together," finished Rengi as he covered the completed body in a crate. "But let's get this little surprise to the hangar for Silver."

Roux gave a slight nod and then said, "Let's get our pilot suits back on and head into hangar. I'm sure there are mobile suits returning and recharging before going back out."

"Uh... about that..." began Rengi, "I… didn't grab a... flight suit."

"What?" Roux asked with a dark aura behind her after hearing that her boyfriend didn't grab a flight suit. "You're telling me that you forgot to grab a flight suit back at Morgenroete?!"

"Eep!" Rengi yelped in terror.

"Once we get Silver into his smaller body, you and I are going to go a round," Roux informed Rengi in a sickly sweet tone.

"Oh no! Not that!" Rengi exclaimed in terror.

* * *

At the 37th factory district, Kira and the others found their way to a huge firefight between the 'factory workers' and ZAFT commandos, looking to be a huge bloodbath on both sides of the conflict. As Setsuna looked at the Gundams laid out on display for them, she felt a sense of familiarity in the area, though she didn't know what it was.

With Banagher, he felt a strange sense of deja vu hit him, mainly because the Gundams were mostly reminiscent of the ones from his part of the galaxy. He didn't know why they weren't painted yet, but he felt that they were going to wait for later, when the pilots had the time to paint them.

Kira didn't question what the mobile units were for, though that didn't stop Hiro from saying, "What? Hey, those are…."

Cagalli, upon seeing the Gundams, went to her knees while holding the railing, grief evident on her face, before saying, "I knew it. The Earth Forces prototype Mobile Weapons." Moving her face forward, she yelled out into the factory, voice echoing as she did so, "FATHER, YOU BETRAYED US ALL!"

At that moment, the nearest 'factory worker' aimed her assault rifle at the group, before the group vacated the area. With the sight of the group in mind, she asked herself in disbelief, "Those were children?"

* * *

While the group vacated the immediate area, Rusty looked about from his spot near the other commandos at the number of Mobile Suits in the area. Upon seeing that there were more than three Mobile Suits in the factory, he immediately pointed and counted the remaining units, before finding out….

"Guys, we've been had!" he yelled to the other redcoats, bullets nearly hitting him. "I counted how many Mobile Suits are over here, and there are seven of them! That's four units too many, considering what we have to go through to get the units out of here."

Athrun and Taikobo both gulped in fear and worry. For Taikobo, that was something, as he usually was a stoic person. In Athrun's case….

"How badly has intel goofed up?"

* * *

Over with Yzak, Dearka and Nicol, the GAT-X102 Duel Gundam grabbed its shield and beam rifle before standing up in its MS Cradle. Within the Duel Gundam, Yzak appreciated the technology in the cockpit and inside the rest of the Mobile Suit, saying, "Whoa, pretty impressive." Turning to a comm port, he asked, "Deakra, how's yours?"

_"Great~,"_ Dearka purred, showing his approval of the GAT-X103 Buster Gundam. _"Update activated. Nerve Links reconstructed. Calibration set. It'll move."_ As if to prove his words, the Buster Gundam stood up in its cradle, ready for combat against the ones that ordered its creation.

From within the Duel Gundam, Yzak asked, "And Nicol?"

* * *

Typing away at the keyboard inside the GAT-X207 Blitz Gundam, Nicol Amalfi said, "Guys, I have a problem with the machine's OS. It's loading some sort of virus into the unit, making it near impossible for me to stay and clean it up. I'm gonna need someone to make sure that I get back to the Gamow for this to work better."

_"What th- really, Nicol?!"_ Yzak, who was understandably upset because of the circumstances, couldn't believe Nicol's luck. With a frustrated sigh, he moved the Duel Gundam to grab Nicol's machine in a place that couldn't connect the two mainframes, thus allowing the Blitz Gundam to stand up.

* * *

Within the Buster Gundam, Dearka looked around, asking, "Where are Athrun, Rusty and Taikobo? Taking their time…."

* * *

Looking at Dearka on the comm port, Yzak said, "Huh. I don't think they'll have any trouble." Looking at the two comm ports at once, he said, "Let's stick with the plan. We'll leave with these three. Let's get them back to Commander Le Creuset before they get damaged."

With that, the Duel Gundam and Buster Gundam activated their thrusters, followed by Matthew's GINN taking off from the ground near them. Not only did the three capable Mobile Suits leave the area behind, but Nicol's newly acquired Blitz Gundam left as well, with Yzak carrying it along.

* * *

Within the 37th Factory District, Gael Chan was still looking for Banagher during the attack, hoping to show him the Mobile Suit that was to be entrusted to him. It was while he was hurrying down the corridor that he saw Banagher and a few others enter from the other direction, with the other boy pressing onto a call function while saying to one of the girls, "See? Some people have evacuated here."

At that moment, the call function activated, with a man's voice asking, _"Is there still someone out there?"_

The boy turned to the microphone and said, "Yes, my friends and I need to get inside. Please, open the door!"

_"Friends?! As in more than one?!"_ the man on the other end asked incredulously.

"That's right," the boy answered, unsure as to what the problem was.

A slight pause happened, though the man eventually explained, _"We're filled to capacity already. There's Shelter 37 in the left block. Can you make it there?"_

Banagher, looking around to the left block, had noted the distance it would take to get there would be a bit much for those without athletic training of some sort. That was when he took over for the other boy and said, "Please, just take one of the girls, at least! There's no _way_ we can _all_ get to the left block, at this rate!"

With another pause, the man talking to them finally relented, saying, _"Yeah, okay… sorry."_

At that, the doorway opened up, though it would seem fate had a prank to pull on the civilians. Just as the door opened, a woman carrying her child ran into the area, looking around for a shelter to go into.

Banagher, who looked at the woman for a split second, realized that there was no way that they could go before a child and their mother. It just felt… wrong… to him, to have one of his friends go before this woman. It was at that moment that he decided.

"Change of plans! A woman and her child need a shelter more than we do!" Banagher yelled to the man on the other end. As soon as that was said, the others realized what was going on, so they decided to let the woman go into the shelter.

The woman merely nodded in thanks before she ran inside the shelter. As soon as she got inside the elevator, the other boy closed it behind her, allowing her and her child to get to safety.

At this point, Gael made his way to the group, saying, "Excuse me, mister Links?" After getting the group's attention, he continued, "I was instructed by your old school's Chairman to give you something of extreme importance. You'll be inheriting something from your father, he said, which was put in the Heliopolis colony to safeguard a valuable piece of history. I'm to show you where it is, so, please. Follow me." Without waiting for Banagher, Gael walked over to a side door and opened it, before going inside.

Banagher turned to face the others and said, "I'd better go see what this is about. I'll be sure to see you guys after this is over with, then." With that, he hurried off after Gael, making sure to close the side door behind him.

* * *

Banagher ran in an attempt to follow Gael through the corridor, looking with his mind for the man, and found him fifteen meters in front of him… through a meter-thick solid wall four meters away. When he looked for a way through, he realized that this was a Mobile Suit hangar bay of some sort, so he had to find the access port.

When he got two meters away from the wall, it split open, going from the middle to the left and right. As soon as the impromptu door opened all the way, he ran past and made it to where Gael was waiting for him, the wall slamming shut right behind him as soon as he was more than two meters away from the wall.

A short bit later, Banagher looked around for Gael, only for the man to yell, "Over here!" Looking up, Banagher saw Gael in the cockpit of the upright Mobile Suit in the hangar bay, which was white all over with a single horn like that of a Unicorn on its head.

Jumping up to the cockpit, Banagher landed at the doorway, asking when he got there, "Why are you with a Mobile Suit?! I thought that the object I'd be given was something more reasonable than a weapon of all things, which I don't want to use unless I have no choice!"

Gael, understanding Banagher's worry, answered, "I'm afraid that this Mobile Suit is the reason why I brought you here. The important piece of history I'm about to impart to you is actually part of a set, as per instructions from your father, who wanted to make sure you were safe when you were in school at Industrial 7 at first. This machine is considered a key that can restore the future as it was meant to be, but only if used in the right hands, which your father felt you were capable of doing." Before Banagher could protest, Gael asked, "What do you prefer, using this Mobile Suit to protect your friends, or running away like a coward?"

Eyes widened for a short bit, Banagher calmed down, saying, "I want to protect my friends, that much is true. Then again, what's going to prevent anyone from stealing this Mobile Suit, mister Gael?"

"Your biometrics are what's going to prevent anyone from stealing the Unicorn, mister Links," Gael answered, grabbing Banagher's right hand and putting it onto a computer console, before finally getting the computer to see that Banagher was the only one qualified to pilot the Mobile Suit.

"Your biometrics are now installed inside the Unicorn," Gael said. "Nobody is allowed to use this but you, now."

As soon as Banagher sat in the seat, he asked, "Do you know who my Father is?"

"Master Cardeas didn't say who, mister Links," was the immediate reply.

"Well, doesn't matter," Banagher relented. "I guess that I'd better get the Unicorn ready to help defend the colony."

With that, Gael nodded his head, before he took off to a doorway that had access to a private space shuttle.

Banagher, now left alone, closed the cockpit of his machine and immediately turned the unit on. He just hoped that his friends were alright.

* * *

Both Rengi and and Roux had made their way to the mobile suit deck where technicians were trying to get at Silver Frame, but the AI would not allow them to get near it. The combat assistant AI would activate the mobile suit itself and try to ward off the technicians with threatening stomps and near misses with its fist. As the couple arrived to the mobile suit deck, they arrived to see SIlver Frame moving around and technicians in a panic.

"That thing's going haywire!" exclaimed one technician.

"Look out, it's gonna try to punch again!" another technician shouted in a panic.

"Someone find the pilot to that crazy thing!" shouted a pilot as he got ready to board his GINN and put the Silver Frame out of its misery. "We don't want a machine that's gonna run haywire!"

"Silver! Stand down!" Rengi ordered the AI as he had a stern look on his face looking to the rambunctious mobile suit.

The AI looked to Rengi and paused for a moment. Then Silver stood the mobile suit up straight, keeping a watchful glance at its pilot.

"Look buddy, we got a surprise for you," Rengi said to the AI as he and Roux opened the crate to reveal a smaller version of the Silver Frame. "Come on. Try it out and see if you like it. You should be able to separate yourself from your mobile suit body."

The AI looked to the see the smaller version of its mobile suit body but then glared at the techs trying to examine him. Silver flashed his eyes in anger as he thought the technicians were there to harm him. For Roux, she gave a sigh and had a not impressed look on her face. She approached the ZAFT technicians and said to them, "Sorry about this. He prefers to be handled and inspected by Morgenroete staff and no one else."

"Sadly, we're not Morgenroete technicians," one mechanic said to Roux. "But we don't plan to dissect or pull any of the mad scientist bull shit that the CLA and Radicals pull whenever they acquire new mobile suits by force."

Silver then relented and then left his body into the smaller version of the Silver Frame in the crate. The smaller human-sized version of Silver Frame then came to life as the AI looked to his partner and Roux.

"Okay, Silver, I know we did this at Morgenroete," Rengi began as he looked to the combat assisting AI, "I need ya to lift your legs."

Silver did as he was asked as Rengi ran through the same tests they went through at the Astray Factory. The tests went through quick and fast as then two assistants from the workshop came presented Rengi with a sword and a shield to present to Silver.

* * *

As Kira, Setsuna, Cagalli, Hiro and Amy ran through the 37th Factory District to reach the shelters in the left block, the battle for the Mobile Suits raged on, down to a few 'factory workers' that were being vastly outgunned by the remaining ZAFT commandos. As Kira and Setsuna were running, they suffered from feeling the dying soldiers of the battlefield from both sides, with Cagalli and Amy supporting them to make it to the left block.

Hiro, on the other hand, was more than used to the feeling of dying, having experienced the feeling very powerfully once before. It didn't mean that he felt nothing, far from it, he was just more able to keep his cool at a time like this.

It was while he kept his cool that he looked at the combat going on, hearing one of the two remaining males in the area call out to someone, "Lieutenant Ramius!"

The woman in the area, apparently this Lieutenant Ramius person, called out, "Hamana, Brian! Get them up and running NOW!" With that, she fired her machine gun with a few more bursts in the direction of the main firefight, unaware of a ZAFT Green Commando… sneaking… right….

When Hiro connected the dots, he stopped in his tracks, yelling as a warning, "BEHIND YOU! LOOK OUT!"

As Lieutenant Ramius turned around and fired her machine gun in the upper direction, her weapon found itself out of ammo after firing three shots, though in those three shots, the Commando was killed. Looking in the direction Hiro's voice came from; she noticed that he was about ready to join four of his friends up ahead.

"Those kids again. Why did he…?" was about as far as the Lieutenant got, loading her machine gun with another magazine, before Brian was killed in action. Taking a pistol out of its holster, she lunged forward, killing the offender with a couple rounds to the chest.

Turning to face Hiro and his friends, she yelled, "Come here!"

Hiro, having been regrouped with his friends, answered for them, "Thanks, but we're off to the shelters in the left block! Never mind us!"

The lieutenant called back as a warning, "There's nothing _left_ behind that door!"

As if to prove her words true, the corridor the shelters were in expelled fire from an explosion, making that option useless as the group fell to their backs from the destruction. When they got back up, they decided as one to head to the Mobile Suits, each of them heading to a different unit.

When Amy made it to a particular unit, she jumped and crouched carefully, landing safely without hurting herself in any way. The remaining male in the factory, however, took notice of that action and nearly shot at her. Upon noticing that she was a civilian, though, he called out to her and yelled, "Hey, you, what do you think you're doing?! That Mobile Suit requires extensive Martial Arts training to operate!"

Amy was about to retort when she heard the part about Martial Arts training. As soon as the officer finished yelling, she asked, "Tell me, does the name Touhou Fuhai mean anything to you?"

The man, unaware of the connection between Amy and the Martial Arts master, answered, "Yeah, but what does that have to do with this?!"

"I'm his student."

The man, now made aware of the connection, said, "The cockpit doesn't work like normal. Get in near the top and start it from within. I'll help you find a good mechanic for maintaining the unit when we're out of this mess." With that, he got in the left leg of the unit, probably with its own space for him to stay alive in this mess.

"...okay." Amy found the entry hatch like the man had told her about, got inside, and prepared to go through the motions of starting up a Mobile Suit.

Meanwhile, the last Green Coat Commando was hurrying to a unit that seemed to be utterly defenseless, and he got within arm's length of the machine. When he touched the unit, that was when his world went black for the last time, especially as he felt a powerful surge of electricity course through his body, frying his brain in the process.

Rusty, upon hearing the death cries of the last Green Coat Commando, turned and looked around the battlefield. Not only were the majority of the 'workers' here dead by Kunai and the two Chakrams, but almost all of the ZAFT Commandos were dead now, especially the one that got himself killed by means of electrocution.

_'How many more lives must we sacrifice to attain freedom from the Earth Sphere?'_ he thought morosely.

Upon hearing Athrun run out of ammo and discarding his machine gun, Rusty snapped back to reality, hurrying to a Mobile Suit that looked like it could transform into a Fighter Jet. He didn't want to stick around when the place blew sky high, especially not out in the open, so he had to hurry and get in.

Taikobo, on the other hand, had managed to land on the unit that killed the last Greencoat… just shortly after a civilian landed on it. He was about to contemplate whether or not to kill the civilian when the young man in front of him gasped, as if in recognition, and breathed, "Tai...kobo?"

Eyes widening, Taikobo questioned, "H-hiro?"

Over with Athrun, he was about to finish off Lieutenant Ramius when a young woman stood in his way, gasping and asking, "A...thrun?"

Stopping in mid-stride, Athrun's eyes widened as he asked, "K-kira?"

With Setsuna, she had been contemplating going with Kira, but stopped herself when she saw a Gundam that was colored, with a silver V for a head crest and a mostly blue color scheme. She had flashbacks to the day she first saw a Gundam… and, this time, she decided to honor those that had died in Krugis, by taking up arms against those that would dare to disrupt the lives of she and her friends.

"Gundam… we'll see this through to the end," she said, before getting inside the cockpit of the Gundam Exia.

At that moment, an explosion tore through the factory district, forcing the situation to be severe, as Athrun was forced off the Mobile Suit he was on by Lieutenant Ramius… and Taikobo jetted over to a different unit to avoid getting stuck in the same cockpit as his friend.

* * *

Inside the cockpit of the Strike Gundam, Lieutenant Ramius told Kira and Cagalli, who was with Kira at the time, "Move back behind the seat." When they complied, she got in the seat, before saying, "At least we can still save the ones piloted by your friends and me. Even _I_ should be able to operate this."

Looking to her left, Kira saw the unit Athrun went inside, making her wonder, _'Athrun? No, it can't be! That's not possible.'_ Soon, the computer in the Strike Gundam booted up, showing the OS acronym that gave it the name….

"Gundam?" Cagalli asked out loud.

* * *

Outside the units, they all flashed their eyes, before they got up and out of their cradles. Once they all got out of their cradles, the weapons known as Gundams came online, ready to turn a new page in the history of Humanity in this part of the Galaxy.

* * *

**Xamusel's Footnotes**

**(1)** Soul Chess, not related to the Code Geass/Bleach crossover in any way, is a special form of chess that can only be accomplished by specific individuals in Cosmic Era 71. One has to have specific qualities in order to even play the game to begin with, namely: 1) Access to Qi with at least three months of training to use it total (one can skip days and not have them count as part of the total time), 2) Knowledge of how normal chess works, and 3) a strong soul (which is second-most important in the qualities one must have to play this, after Qi training). The rules of the game are different from regular chess in that there's terrain features that vary depending on the challenger of the game, though it should be noted that the game itself balances the playing field to make it fair for both parties, rather than being skewed for the challenger's benefit.

**(2)** Enhanced Naturals are humans that are the product of a Coordinator and a Natural. They have better reproductive organs than a Coordinator, but they also have better physical characteristics than a Natural, which means that they can be something of a pariah compared to either of their parents. In Kyou's case, Caridad was a Coordinator, while Haruma was a Natural.

**(3)** Qi, the Chinese spelling of Ki (both pronounced "key"), is an internal energy source that is virtually inexhaustible if one practices using it from a young age. It is, in the real world, unable to manifest itself as a visible aura or do most of the crazy things that it can in this setting, but creative license is needed, given that much of what the energy can or can't do in real life is hard to properly explain. The main thing to remember about this, however, is that most things that are considered impossible by scientific means are possible with the right training in Qi. On that note, normally, Coordinators are less spiritually inclined to use Qi like Naturals and, to a lesser degree, Enhanced Naturals.

**(4)** Essentially, I'm trying to describe the Nahel Argama, but I suck at descriptions of warships and even Mobile Suits.

**(5)** Yes, that's right, Riddhe Marcenas is here! How he'll change, I am not spoiling yet, people.

**(6)** Yes, it's a ReZEL, Riddhe doesn't upgrade to his Delta Plus until _after_ his confrontation with Full Frontal.

**(7)** I'm trying to recolor the Re-GZ and give it GN Bits here… cut me some slack!

**Sparky's Footnotes**

_(1), (2)_ Sorry readers, I can't help it. I wanted to leave a little Soul Eater reference.

* * *

**Xamusel A/N: Well, this ought to do the trick. I mean, I've been really behind on updating this story because of other priorities (including, but not limited to, NaNoWriMo).**

**Now… unfortunately for most people, the chapter's pretty long, but we didn't know how to best cut back. We apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused.**

**By the way, before you ask, the answer is 42. The answer is ****_always_**** 42!**

**…*ahem* sorry, I should quit referencing Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, especially since it was inadvertent (until I got to the part about the number 42).**

**Anyway… I'll wait for Sparky to write his notes before wrapping up.**

**Sparky: Hope you guys like the chapter. We've put in a lot of hard work into it. Please read and leave reviews to the author.**

**Xamusel: Yeah, that was thankfully enough, as he told me personally.**

**Well… until we meet again… farewell.**

**~Xamusel**


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